HR briefing - November 2026

Welcome to our briefing for HR teams and in-house employment counsel – bringing you this month’s employment law highlights in an easy-to-read package.

There has been a flurry of government and regulatory developments, running alongside the coming into force of a series of provisions of the Employment Rights Act 2025. We take a look at the main talking points below.

Union access

Trade unions now have enhanced rights to request access to workplaces to recruit or organise (but not to organise industrial action).

•  A code of practice covering the format of requests, how employers might respond to them, and the dispute resolution and sanctions mechanism is available on The Government website: Code of Practice: Right of trade unions to access workplace.

Harassment

The law has changed to require businesses to take “all reasonable steps” rather than just “reasonable steps” to prevent sexual harassment at work. Employers will now also face liability if they fail to take all reasonable steps to prevent harassment of their staff by third parties, across the protected characteristics covered by the harassment provisions.

• For more information, read our previous article “Beyond the workforce: what the new rules on third-party harassment mean for employers in practice”. 
• The Equality and Human Rights Commission’s updated technical guidance on harassment is available on their website: Sexual harassment and harassment at work: technical guidance.

Whistleblowing

The Government is consulting on changes to the whistleblowing regime. The most eye-catching is the proposal for a reward scheme operated by the Serious Fraud Office for reporting of financial offences, but there are a number of other interesting changes on the table. 

• For more information, read our previous article “Government launches most significant review of whistleblowing framework in over 25 years – including paying whistleblowers to report economic crime”.

Employment status

We have looked at “employee” and “worker” status many times over recent years, especially in the context of the gig economy. The Government is now consulting on a series of proposals, all of which are intended to make it easier for individuals to be “workers”.

• For more information, read our previous article “Self-employment reform: what the government's new consultation means for businesses that engage contractors”.

Enhanced dismissal protections and family leave

Women on maternity leave have enjoyed some degree of protection from redundancy for many years. The Government intends to enhance these protections, primarily by extending them across all forms of termination, across a wider category of protected groups, and over a longer timeframe. 

• For more information, read our previous article “The Government confirms enhanced dismissal protections for new parents”.

Fire and re-hire

The practice of dismissing employees and offering to re-engage them on different (typically less favourable) terms has been very heavily criticised over many years. The Employment Rights Act contains important new restrictions in this area, and the Government is now consulting on revisions to the code of practice covering some of the details. 

• The consultation is available on The Government website: Make Work Pay: revised code of practice on dismissal and re-engagement.

Right to work checks

The requirement to check the immigration status of employees has been in place for many years. The regime has now been significantly overhauled, covering a much broader range of individuals. 

• For more information, read our previous article “Right to work checks: extended liability for organisations from 1 October 2026”.

To discuss how any of these changes might affect your business, please speak to your usual Macfarlanes contact.