The introduction of the new Employment Rights Act 2025 was fully explained by Gabrielle Scriven of Backhouse Jones at a recent webinar hosted by the UK Coach Operators Association (UKCOA) for its members.
The Act represents a material shift in the UK employment landscape. Gabrielle confirmed that the direction of travel is clear: a stronger baseline of statutory rights, tighter expectations on fair process, and increased scrutiny of workforce practices that historically sat in grey areas — particularly around status, predictability of work, and workplace protections.
For coach operators the core task is not simply legal compliance on paper, but operational readiness: updating contracts, policies and manager capability so that day-to-day decisions align with the new statutory standards. In a tighter labour market and an increasingly claims aware workforce, the practical impact is likely to be felt as much in employee relations as in litigation exposure.
A higher compliance baseline with less room for ‘custom and practice’ brings a reduced tolerance for informal arrangements.
The webinar explained that the actual practice of running a coach company might diverge from forthcoming legislation in areas as diverse as working patterns, on-call time and harassment policies.
The risk to operators is that employee contracts and policies can quietly accumulate a divergence from the new norm exposing an unsuspecting operator to penalties. The underlying message from the webinar is that operators should assume that ‘we’ve always done it this way’ will be even less defensible where it cuts across new rights.
Contract terms and real working arrangements will need to be reconciled with the new legislation and not just refreshed.
Day-one rights is an area operators should review. The reforms strengthen employee rights earlier in employment. With protections brought forward (or easier to enforce early on) operators will need to treat probation as a structured process rather than an informal ‘trial period’.
That means:
- Clear probation objectives and documented reviews
- Consistent decision-making
- Careful manager handling of performance, conduct and capability issues
- Manager training so early-stage decisions do not drift into discrimination or whistleblowing territory.
One practical implication is early exits may attract more challenge unless supported by a fair, documented process.
The new legislation enhances protections for alleged harassment, and the biggest practical vulnerability is often not the policy document but rather the quality and consistency of first-line management response.
Even well-drafted policies fail when:
- Concerns are handled late or informally
- Notes are incomplete
- Outcomes are inconsistent across departments
- Investigations are rushed or overly legalistic (in a way that feels unfair to those involved).
As rights expand, the risks to operators of litigation increases and prevention is better than cure.
There is no celebration for prevention. There are no awards for ‘nothing with wrong’. But when it comes to legislation that’s the best way.
The best prevention is to join UKCOA and keep abreast of all developments.
