Why hospitality teams need practical training on the Employment Rights Act 2025

The hospitality industry relies on flexible rotas, variable demand, and fast operational decisions, with managers constantly responding to bookings, footfall, sickness, and staffing gaps in real time. The Employment Rights Act 2025 introduces new obligations around how that flexibility is managed: new requirements on predictable working patterns, day-one rights and shift notice periods will directly affect how those decisions are made.  

That’s what makes this legislation particularly significant for the sector. Compliance won’t depend solely on updated policies. It will depend on whether managers and teams understand how to apply the changes consistently during day-to-day operations. 

The challenge is that many hospitality employees already feel under-supported. Our 2026 Hospitality People Survey found that 44% had received some training, but not as much as they would like, while only 52% felt they had received sufficient training to feel fully qualified in their role. 

Policy updates alone won’t prepare your teams for the Act 

Search for ‘Employment Rights Act training’ and you’ll find no shortage of options. Most are built around frameworks, definitions, legal risk - all useful for policy writers and HR teams, but not always easy to apply in practice. 

The real compliance challenge isn't updating the handbook. It's ensuring managers understand their obligations well enough to make the right call when a situation arises, and that employees understand the rights and protections that now apply to them. A worker requesting guaranteed hours, a shift cancellation that triggers compensation, a day-one rights question from a new starter - without the right training on both sides, even well-intentioned decisions can create legal exposure. 

What your team needs to know and how to make it manageable 

The Employee Rights Act touches a wide range of areas your team will encounter day to day: 

For many operators, the challenge isn’t understanding that the legislation matters. It’s knowing how to train busy teams on a wide range of changes without disrupting service or overloading managers. 

That's a lot of ground for a busy team to cover. The key is making the training manageable without making it superficial. 

The real cost of not being compliant 

The government's own economic analysis of the Act identifies hospitality as one of the sectors likely to be most affected by the changes. Workers may be able to bring claims relating to guaranteed hours, cancelled shifts, or insufficient notice periods if businesses fail to meet the new requirements. At the same time, the newly established Fair Work Agency is expected to increase visibility around sector-level compliance trends, particularly in industries with large shift-based workforces such as hospitality.