Preparing for the Employment Rights Act
The Employment Rights Bill received Royal Assent on 18 December 2025, paving the way for significant reforms to employment law over the next two years. The changes fall broadly into three categories: new rights and protections for workers; fair pay, terms and working conditions; and enforcement and trade unions.
The first tranche of changes, which have already come into force, are focused on modernising trade union legislation including workers’ ability to take strike action. Further changes will take effect in April 2026, including the introduction of new ‘day one’ rights to statutory sick pay (SSP), paternity leave and unpaid parental leave, and the removal of the lower earnings limit for SSP. From January 2027, the two‐year qualifying period for unfair dismissal will be reduced to six months.
Build UK Partner Citation has updated its overview of the changes now that the Employment Rights Act is in force to help employers understand the impact on their businesses and what they need to do to prepare, including reviewing their policies and processes.
National Apprenticeship Week 2026 – Get Involved
National Apprenticeship Week (NAW) 2026 will take place from Monday 9 ‐ Sunday 15 February to showcase the benefits of apprenticeships, and AFI is encouraging all members to get involved. The theme is ‘Skills for Life’, and there are a number of simple things you can do to show how apprenticeships set the foundation for a successful career:
Celebrate your apprentices – Put your apprentices front and centre of your business and on social media using the hashtag #NAW2026 and showcase the career journeys of employees who started as apprentices.
Promote your apprenticeship vacancies – List all your apprenticeship opportunities on Go Construct Careers and make it easier for young people to join our industry.
Get involved in Open Doors – Promote your Open Doors events as a unique way for people to learn more about what it is like to work in construction and the opportunities available.
For more information on getting involved throughout the week, you can download a range of free NAW 2026 toolkits. Any members in‐scope to CITB who would like support with finding, recruiting and retaining apprentices should contact CITB’s New Entrant Support Team.
Competence Hub
The first iteration of the Built Environment Competence Hub has been launched to bring together the industry’s competence‐related resources in one central place. The hub has been developed by the BSI in collaboration with the Industry Competence Steering Group, and members will need to register to gain access to the resources including competence frameworks.
AFI Membership Renewals & Certified Contractor Scheme
A quick reminder that membership renewal fees are due by the end of January. To ensure there’s no interruption to your benefits, please make sure your renewal is completed by then.
As part of your renewal, if you send us your updated insurance documents along with a reference (this can be in any format — a social media post, website review, testimonial, message, etc.), we will automatically add Yellow – General Certified Contractor Status to your membership.
If you’re interested in achieving a higher level of Certified Contractor Status, we’re very happy to help — we’ll just need a little additional information from you. Please get in touch and we can guide you through the next steps.
Thank you for being part of the AFI community, and we appreciate your continued support.