Do You Know Your Employment Rights?
From Transforming Tomorrow by The Pentland Centre for Sustainability in Business
May 11, 2026 · 41 min · Season 3 · Episode 31
About this episode
The episode discusses evolving employment rights in the UK with a focus on the Employment Rights Act of 2025 and its implications for workers and employers.
At a time when employment rights in the UK are evolving all the time, we look at how and why. Alice Martin, Head of Research at the Work Foundation thinktank at Lancaster University, joins us to talk about the Employment Rights Act of 2025, and why it is important for you if you are in a job, seeking a job or looking to employ someone. We look at the key issues around job insecurity, how this ties in with workers’ rights, the protections that are in place – and that are still needed – how health impacts working lives, and the struggles of finding jobs in an increasingly competitive (and restricted) market. Alice tells us how workers’ right have (and have not) changed over the years; what the Employment Rights Act does – and aims to do; what the Fair Work Agency (and fair work) is; and how the Act ties in with flexible working, unfair dismissals, and statutory sick pay. And we look at what might come next, how employers might look to circumvent some powers of the act through using gig workers, the need for working lives to be sustainable and not lead to burnout, and the potential for AI to help workers, not just take their jobs. Plus, do academics really like to complain all the…
People in this episode
Guest: Alice Martin
Topics covered
- employment rights
- job insecurity
- workers' rights
- Employment Rights Act
- flexible working
- AI in the workplace
Keywords
- employment rights
- job security
- workers' protections
- Employment Rights Act
- flexible working
- AI impact
- unfair dismissals
- statutory sick pay
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Work Foundation, Lancaster University, Fair Work Agency
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