Businesses across the construction sector are the most unprepared for the Employment Rights Act 2025, despite relatively high familiarity with the reforms, according to a new survey published by Peninsula
The survey covered familiarity with the Employment Rights Act, preparedness, overall sentiment, views on specific reforms, concerns about costs and administration, and perceived risks associated with recruitment.
Respondents included 220 senior leaders, 190 business owners and 109 other decision makers, representing 12 UK regions, 19 industry sectors and businesses ranging from 1 to more than 1,000 employees.
Only 15% of construction businesses feel prepared for Employment Rights Act changes
Of the surveyed construction businesses, the data found that:
- 77.8% of construction businesses were familiar with the Employment Rights Act 2025
- 14.3% still feel unprepared for the changes
- A 21.4% major or critical concern about the unfair dismissal changes
- 82% of businesses had started preparing for implementation
- Only 15% felt completely prepared
Kate Palmer, chief operations officer at Peninsula, explained: “The construction sector’s results show that awareness isn’t the same as readiness. Knowing about the Employment Rights Act 2025 is only the starting point.
“Employers need to translate the reforms into practical changes in manager training, how performance and absence are handled, how contracts are written, and how employment arrangements operate across sites and teams.”
Changes causing stress for construction workers
Comments from survey respondents who work in construction echoed a lack of work and unproductivity, suggesting that changes to the Employment Rights Act could be detrimental.
Comments included:
“Costs keep rising, and these are just increasing costs; we are hiring fewer people, so this is making workers more stressed, or standards are going down, or the extra costs go onto the end user.”
“Zero-hours contracts and flexible working hours – difficult to match with nature where quantity of work depends on weather.”
“There is more than enough opportunity, but babying grown adults with private business funded welfare will have a negative effect on the UK construction industry as a whole. 23 years in construction has taught me that unproductive people are a dime a dozen, and they love easy or free money.”
How construction should prepare for the changes
“Our findings suggest that construction businesses may understand the broad direction of the reforms but still face practical challenges in putting them into effect,” Palmer said.
“These challenges may be particularly significant in a sector that often operates across multiple sites, project-based teams, varied working patterns and a combination of directly employed and flexible workers.”
She concluded: “Practical preparation should include reviewing employment contracts and probation arrangements, checking that absence and Statutory Sick Pay processes are accurate, training site managers and supervisors, auditing workforce arrangements and ensuring that records and decision-making can be evidenced consistently across sites.”
