Employment Law News Roundup – 5.7.26

Acas Sees Record Demand Amid Major Employment Law Changes

Acas has reported exceptional demand for its services during 2025–26, reflecting the growing pressure on employers, workers and the wider employment tribunal system.

According to its latest annual report, Acas handled more than 150,000 early conciliation notifications, a 27% increase in demand for its individual dispute resolution service. Early conciliation remains a key part of the employment tribunal process, giving parties the opportunity to resolve potential claims before they proceed to a hearing. Acas reported that more than 9 out of 10 cases it handled were resolved without the need for an employment tribunal hearing.

Early Conciliation and Workplace Disputes

The figures show the continuing importance of early intervention in workplace disputes. For employers, early conciliation can provide an opportunity to resolve claims before legal costs, management time and reputational risk escalate. For employees, it can offer a quicker and less formal route to settlement.

Acas also played a significant role in collective workplace disputes. During 2025–26, it handled around 400 collective disputes, with 93% resolved or progressed towards settlement. This suggests that collective conciliation remains important at a time when industrial relations, pay pressures and workplace reform continue to create uncertainty for employers and workers.

Demand for Acas Advice and Training

Acas’s advice services were also heavily used. Its helpline answered 584,000 calls from employers and workers across Great Britain, while the Acas website recorded 18.5 million sessions. Acas content also appeared in nearly 400 million Google search results, a 38% increase on the previous year.

Training was another major area of demand. Acas trained more than 400,000 people through webinars, e-learning and in-person sessions, including training on conflict prevention, conflict management and the Employment Rights Act 2025. That is significant because many employers are now preparing for substantial employment law changes, including reforms to unfair dismissal, zero-hours contracts, flexible working, fire and rehire, collective rights and workplace enforcement.

Implications

The rise in Acas demand points to a workplace environment under strain. Employers are dealing with new and forthcoming employment law changes, higher employment costs, more complex employee relations issues and increased expectations around flexibility, fairness and consultation.

For employers, the lesson is not simply that disputes are increasing. It is that unresolved workplace issues can quickly become formal legal claims. Clear policies, early management intervention, good record-keeping and fair internal procedures are likely to become even more important as the next phase of employment law reform takes effect.

Acas’s role will therefore remain central. As employment law changes continue, employers who invest in early dispute resolution, manager training and better workplace communication will be better placed to reduce tribunal risk and maintain stable employee relations.

Holiday Hoarding Leaves Many UK Workers Without Full Annual Leave

New research conducted by Breathe HR has found that many workers are still not taking their full annual leave entitlement.

The survey of 2,000 workers found that 51% did not take their full annual leave allowance last year. The trend, described as “holiday hoarding”, appears likely to continue, with 23% saying they plan to take less holiday this year than they did last year.

Holiday Hoarding and Burnout

Unused holiday may sometimes be misread as a sign of commitment, but the research suggests it may be a warning sign of presenteeism. Around 48% of holiday hoarders reported feeling burnt out by the end of the year. The survey also found that holiday hoarders were more than twice as likely to take an above-average number of sick days compared with workers who used their full annual leave entitlement.

This is important because annual leave is not just a contractual or statutory entitlement. It is part of how employees rest, recover and remain fit for work. Where employees regularly delay or avoid taking holiday, the result may be higher stress, lower engagement, reduced productivity and increased sickness absence.

Why Employees Are Not Taking Holiday

The causes of holiday hoarding appear to be practical, cultural and financial.

The research found that 29% of workers felt workload prevented them from taking holiday, 21% were not encouraged by their employer or manager to take leave, and 28% found it difficult to track how much holiday they had used or had remaining. In addition, 19% said holiday was treated as an inconvenience within their organisation.

Financial pressures are also affecting leave-taking. More than a fifth of workers said they planned to take less leave because the cost of living meant they could not afford to go away, with the same proportion citing the rising cost of flights. Job security concerns were also a factor, with some workers worried that taking all their holiday could affect how managers viewed them.

What Employers Should Do

Employers should not assume that unused holiday is harmless. Where staff are not taking leave, it may indicate excessive workload, poor resource planning, weak holiday systems or a culture in which employees feel unable to take proper breaks.

The practical steps are straightforward. Employers should make holiday balances easy to check, remind staff to take leave throughout the year, train managers to encourage regular breaks and monitor teams where holiday is building up. Managers should also lead by example by taking their own annual leave and avoiding contact with employees who are on holiday unless there is a genuine emergency.

Holiday hoarding should also be considered as part of wider wellbeing and stress risk management. If employees are too busy, too anxious or too unsupported to take holiday, the problem is unlikely to be solved by reminders alone. Employers may need to look more closely at workload, staffing levels, management behaviour and whether annual leave is genuinely treated as a normal part of working life.

For employers, the message is clear. Encouraging employees to take annual leave is not just about compliance. It is part of protecting wellbeing, reducing burnout and maintaining a sustainable workforce.