Employment Rights Act 1996

The ERA 1996 codified and replaced previous fragmented employment legislation. Part X (s.94-134A) covers unfair dismissal — the most-claimed employment right. Part XI covers redundancy payments. Part II covers protection of wages (s.13 unlawful deductions). Part VIII covers maternity, paternity, adoption leave. Part IVA (s.43A-43L) covers whistleblowing. Section 1 requires a written statement of particulars within 2 months of employment starting. The ERA combined with the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 forms the core of employment law in Great Britain.

In practice, the ERA is the Act you cite when the question is what an individual employee is owed — pay, notice, a written statement, a fair process, a redundancy payment. Two features shape almost every claim under it. First, most of its headline rights belong to employees rather than the broader category of workers. Second, several of them carry a qualifying period: you generally need two years of continuous employment to bring an ordinary unfair dismissal claim or to receive statutory redundancy pay.

Worked example: Sofia has 18 months' service when she is dismissed after raising concerns about safety breaches. She cannot bring an ordinary unfair dismissal claim because she is short of two years. But dismissal for making a protected disclosure under Part IVA is automatically unfair, and automatically unfair dismissals carry no qualifying period and no cap on the compensatory award. Separately, her final payslip omits accrued holiday and deducts a training cost the contract does not clearly authorise. That is an unlawful deduction from wages under section 13, and it is a distinct claim she can bring regardless of length of service.

The misconceptions are worth correcting. A statement of particulars is not the same as a contract, though it is strong evidence of the terms, and it must now be given on or before the first day of employment rather than within two months. Resigning does not always end your rights: if the employer has committed a fundamental breach and you resign promptly in response, that can be a constructive dismissal. Continuity of employment survives many changes, including a TUPE transfer, so a new employer's name on the payslip does not reset the clock. And the time limit for most ERA claims is three months less one day, extended only by the early conciliation pause.

The ERA is the source of unfair dismissal, statutory redundancy pay, minimum notice, and the protection behind settlement agreements; procedural fairness comes from the ACAS Code. Read our guides to unfair dismissal, redundancy and final pay.