Updates around rights to work checks, contracts, pre-employment checks, part-time workers and what you need to know on the Employment Rights Act 2025
This month we focus on changes to right to work checks, an Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) decision on contract wording and pre-employment checks, plus, an important clarification on part-time workers. We also remind you about the October changes under the Employment Rights Act 2025.
Right-to-work checks are an important part of the pre-employment checks that people professionals are often responsible for during the onboarding process. As part of broader attempts to curb illegal migration to the UK, the government has extended the obligations on employers to check right-to-work status to broader categories of workers, as well as measures to address problems that can be caused by chains of contracts and sub-contracts which muddy the waters around who is responsible for these checks. As well as making it harder for people to work in the UK when they are not permitted to, the changes should indirectly reduce the abuse illegal workers experience from unscrupulous people traffickers and gangmasters.
CIPD members can refer to the guide specifically covering the new right-to-work checks – including an explanation of the new responsibilities. We have also updated our guide on pre-employment checks more generally.
There is also a timely decision from the EAT around making job offers conditional on completing pre-employment checks, covered in our spotlight on tribunal decisions.
In the first 'naming' round since the establishment of the Fair Work Agency in April 2026, the Department of Business, Innovation, Science and Trade (DBIST) has named nearly 660 employers who failed to pay their employees the appropriate National Minimum Wage. Alongside the repayment of £4 million to workers who missed out, the information provided by DBIST details that penalties totalling £7 million were also issued to the employers concerned.
While HMRC continues to enforce the National Minimum Wage, it does so on behalf of the Fair Work Agency, which is expected to take over full enforcement responsibility from April 2027. The Fair Work Agency will also provide more guidance to employers on how to follow the rules and avoid inadvertently paying workers less than the NMW due to a lack of understanding. Key issues that were identified in this naming round included:
Given the increased emphasis on enforcement and wider complexities around pay and reward we have developed a new law page for CIPD members which covers the National Minimum Wage in more detail.
Many employers make job offers which are 'subject to' the completion of one or more pre-employment checks. The most common – and which applies to all workers – is the right to work check, but many roles are offered on the condition that satisfactory references are received, or that a DBS check is completed. In a recent case, Kankanalpalli v Loesche Energy Systems Ltd, the EAT decided that the detail in the correspondence that offered the role and that the individual accepted did create a contract, and the employer breached that contract (and so had to pay notice) when it withdrew the offer (for other reasons) relying on the fact that two of the conditions in the offer letter had not been met.
We cover this case in more detail in our CIPD member guide to pre-employment checks, along with some guidance to help you review your offer letters.
The Supreme Court has made an important decision on the wording of the Part Time Worker Regulations (PTW Regs). The decision in the case of Augustine v Data Cars Ltd [2026] has settled the question of whether part-time worker status must be the only ('sole') cause of the less favourable treatment, or the 'effective' cause of it for a claim to succeed under the PTW Regs and confirms that it is enough for the part-time status to be an ‘effective’ cause of the less favourable treatment. The Supreme Court decision is technical and focuses on the correct interpretation of phrases in the PTW Regs and associated documentation. The facts were that Mr Augustine, a private hire driver, had to pay the same rate to Data Cars Ltd, a private hire company, to access the company’s booking system even though he worked fewer hours than other drivers. The private hire company had argued that it had to earn revenue from the business so even if the less favourable reason was in part due to Mr Augustine’s part-time worker status, it was not the only reason.
The practical takeaway for employers faced with a grievance from a worker that they are being treated less favourably because they are part time, is that the worker does not have to show that their part-time status was the only reason for the treatment, only that it was the effective reason. However, other reasons for the treatment – such as legitimate business reasons – may be relevant for the employer to justify the treatment.
More information about the PTW Regs can be found on the CIPD's law page on employment status.
Full details of all the Employment Rights Act 2025 changes, including new tools to support you in your practice, are available on our tracker.
Use the tracker to keep up to date with latest timeline and developments
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