The Government has indicated its ongoing commitment to its 'Make Work Pay' strategy and will continue to roll out further employment legislation changes over the coming year.
The Employment Rights Act (ERA), introduced in December 2025 and being phased in across 2026 and 2027, represents a major shift in UK employment law. It strengthens workers’ rights, promotes transparency and accountability, and aims to improve job security. For the construction sector - long reliant on flexible labour such as agency staff, contractors, and zero-hours workers - these reforms present significant operational, legal, and cultural changes.
Big changes in UK employment law are underway as the UK Government’s new Employment Rights Act 2025 is rolled out.
Whitbread has become the newest organisation to sponsor our UK Construction and Property Programme, joining existing sponsors Saint Gobain, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, Wolseley and Stark in publicly demonstrating their commitment towards tackling modern slavery in the construction and property sectors.
According to global research, around a third of victims of forced labour are to be found in the services sector, which covers a range of activities. The UK Modern Slavery Helpline in 2024 states that services ranked third in terms of the number of reported cases and the number of potential victims, after the Care and Construction sectors.
The UK Government is driving construction, but will this increase the potential for exploitation?