The Employment Rights Bill and How It Affects Your Business...

The Employment Rights Bill introduces significant reforms to UK employment law, and one of the most important developments for employers concerns whistleblowing.

While whistleblowing protections have existed for years under the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998, the new legislation strengthens and clarifies protections in a way that materially increases legal and financial risk for businesses.

In particular, disclosures relating to sexual harassment will be expressly protected under whistleblowing law. This expands the scope for automatic unfair dismissal and detriment claims. For employers, this is not just a policy update. It is a compliance, governance and reputational issue that requires proactive preparation.

The Employment Rights Bill has now received Royal Assent and is law. However, its provisions are being introduced in stages.

This phased implementation creates a potential trap for employers. Because not all reforms take effect immediately, there is a risk of assuming that preparation can wait. In reality, the opposite is true.

The whistleblowing changes relating to sexual harassment are expected to take effect from April 2026. That may appear distant, but policy updates, manager training, reporting system upgrades and cultural adjustments take time to embed properly.

By the time the reforms come into force, tribunals will not be sympathetic to organisations that had advance notice but failed to prepare.

For businesses, the period before implementation is not a window for delay. It is a window for action.

Under existing law, workers who raise concerns about sexual harassment must rely on established categories of wrongdoing, such as a breach of legal obligation, to obtain whistleblowing protection. That approach can create uncertainty and legal complexity.

Under the new legislation, a disclosure that sexual harassment has occurred, is occurring, or is likely to occur will be treated as qualifying wrongdoing for whistleblowing purposes.

This means that workers who raise such concerns may be protected from:

• Detriment, such as demotion, disciplinary action or exclusion
• Dismissal, which would be automatically unfair if linked to the disclosure

As with other whistleblowing claims, compensation for dismissal remains uncapped.

The reform is designed to provide greater clarity and confidence for individuals reporting workplace misconduct. For businesses, however, it increases the scope of potential exposure.

Complaints about sexual harassment may now carry the additional dimension of whistleblowing risk. Employers could therefore face not only discrimination claims under the Equality Act but also whistleblowing detriment or automatic unfair dismissal claims.

Whistleblowing claims do not require two years of service, and compensation is uncapped. The financial exposure alone warrants attention.

To qualify for protection, a worker must reasonably believe the disclosure is made in the public interest. Tribunal decisions have interpreted public interest broadly, even where a relatively small group of employees is affected.

Businesses should not assume that a complaint framed as a personal grievance will fall outside whistleblowing protection.

The reform signals a broader policy shift. Workplace harassment is not simply an internal HR matter. It is capable of engaging statutory whistleblowing protection and public interest considerations.

For boards and senior leadership, this connects directly to governance, ESG commitments, and organisational culture. How complaints are handled will increasingly be viewed through a compliance and accountability lens.

The whistleblowing changes sit within a wider package of employment reforms, including:

• Stronger duties on employers to take reasonable steps to prevent harassment
• Greater scrutiny of confidentiality clauses and non disclosure agreements
• Broader reforms affecting dismissal rights and worker protections

Taken together, these changes increase regulatory, financial and reputational exposure where workplace culture issues are not properly addressed.

Although some reforms are not yet in force, the legislation is already enacted and implementation dates are approaching. Businesses that wait until the deadline will expose themselves to avoidable legal and reputational risk.

Practical steps include:

1. Reviewing whistleblowing policies to ensure sexual harassment disclosures are clearly covered
2. Aligning grievance and whistleblowing procedures to avoid inconsistent handling
3. Training managers to recognise when a complaint may qualify as a protected disclosure
4. Auditing confidentiality clauses and settlement agreements
5. Ensuring investigations are prompt, impartial and well documented

Crucially, businesses should also consider whether their reporting mechanisms genuinely encourage early disclosure. If employees do not feel safe, confident or able to report concerns discreetly, risk escalates.

Traditional telephone based reporting lines can feel formal, slow or intimidating. Increasingly, organisations are turning to fully digital platforms that allow individuals to raise concerns quickly and discreetly, while enabling employers to manage reports efficiently and transparently.

Solutions such as Whiss provide a modern approach to whistleblowing and employee suggestions. A fully digital platform not only streamlines reporting and case management but can also increase engagement by making it easier for employees to speak up at an early stage. Earlier reporting often means earlier intervention, reducing both legal exposure and cultural damage.

The Employment Rights Bill does not replace existing whistleblowing law, but it sharpens and expands it in a meaningful way.

By explicitly protecting disclosures of sexual harassment, the legislation reinforces the principle that workplace misconduct is a matter of public interest, not merely an internal complaint.

For businesses, the message is clear. The law has changed, implementation is underway, and expectations are rising. Prevention, reporting systems, governance and culture must be robust. Having the right infrastructure in place before the reforms fully take effect may prove to be a decisive advantage.