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 time? Are employment tribunal PDFs really that interesting? And if there is no such thing as a zero-hours contract, then why do we hear so much about them?!

Find out more about the Work Foundation here: https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/work-foundation/

Read a short piece from Alice on the potential future of workers’ rights: https://doc.your-brochure-online.co.uk/Lancaster-University_FiftyFourDegrees_Issue_25/18/

Discover the Fair Work Agency here: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/fair-work-agency

The example of a regional approach to ensuring decent work that Jan mentioned from Manchester can be found here: https://www.gmgoodemploymentcharter.co.uk/

And this report (produced through a partnership between the UK Government and the Pentland Centre) presents an evidence summary of effective prevention and detection of labour exploitation: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/69d4d224019a4faf2745b385/decent_work_a_review_of_evidence_for_effective_prevention_and_detection_of_labour_exploitation.pdf

Episode Transcript