UK Employment Rights Act: a win for seafarers?

The UK Employment Rights Bill finally received Royal assent on 18 December 2025. Now an Act of Parliament, it represents the most significant overhaul of UK workers' rights in a generation and ushers in some major positive changes for maritime professionals after years of lobbying by Nautilus. Rob Coston looks at the implications

The Employment Rights Bill has now become law after extended parliamentary wrangling. It introduces wide-ranging rights for workers, even after the government scaled back some headline proposals such as day-one unfair dismissal in a political compromise between employers and unions. The reforms are being implemented in phases during 2026 and 2027. 

The Act forms a core part of the government's 'Make Work Pay' agenda, aiming to boost living standards by strengthening workplace protections and modernise outdated labour law frameworks 

'it's the largest improvement in working rights in a generation, the biggest since the introduction of the Minimum Wage, and represents a shift in the balance of power in UK industrial relations to a more even playing field,' says Nautilus director of organising Martyn Gray. 

For Nautilus members, this Act follows on from important legislation introduced post-P&O Ferries, including the Seafarers Wages Act 2023, which requires  vessels operating a service regularly using a UK port to pay seafarers the UK National Minimum Wage equivalent for work done in UK territorial waters with the aim of stopping fire and rehire practices and undercutting of pay.  

The Seafarers Wages Act, however, has serious weaknesses as loopholes allow for structuring route destinations to avoid falling under the law. It is also no guarantee of protection from fire and rehire, doesn’t cover conditions outside UK territorial waters, and fails to protect broader pay, rostering and working terms. The new Act addresses many of these serious issues and strengthens protections. 

How does this affect me? 

Seafarers, including Nautilus members, have gained some valuable new protections under the Act, addressing longstanding gaps in how UK labour law applies at sea.  

Mr Gray summarises the impact: 'We've got long-term improvements in welfare, safety, job security, pay and overtime from this landmark piece of legislation. Even some of the legal loopholes caused by the flag of convenience system are being closed. 

'Nautilus has led advocacy and direct lobbying to government stakeholders, to MPs. Lords and government departments. We've had meetings, briefings, committee evidence sessions. We've directly campaigned to ensure that the Act contains maritime specific protections, whereas in in previous employment legislation there's been a maritime opt-out for employers. And we've pressed ministers to make sure that the act reflects the realities of seafaring work.' 

One of the most important developments is the creation of powers to introduce a mandatory seafarers' charter, which builds on the voluntary charter introduced by the previous government in the aftermath of the P&O Ferries dismissals. While the voluntary charter relied on operator buy-in and had limited enforcement, the new Act allows the charter to be placed on a statutory footing, enabling legally enforceable standards on working conditions such as hours of work, rest, fatigue management, training and welfare for services that regularly call at a UK port.  

Nautilus International consistently argued that the voluntary measures were not enough and campaigned for binding rules, giving evidence to parliamentary committees and pressing ministers to ensure the charter had real legal force. 

The Act also strengthens protections linked to pay by reinforcing the framework that requires operators on regular UK routes to ensure seafarers are paid at least the UK National Minimum Wage equivalent for relevant work. These measures are intended to prevent undercutting and exploitation, particularly by operators using complex employment structures or overseas contracts. Nautilus played a prominent role in highlighting pay abuses in the sector, pushing for tougher enforcement mechanisms. 

More broadly, the Employment Rights Act's reforms to unfair dismissal, collective redundancy rules and restrictions on the use of fire and rehire tactics have indirect but important implications for seafarers. Although maritime employment has often sat at the margins of standard UK employment protections, these changes strengthen job security and make it harder for employers to repeat practices such as mass sackings without consultation. Maritime professionals should no longer be excluded from these baseline protections simply because their workplace is at sea. 

Finally, Nautilus and other unions have been concerned that maritime professionals can struggle to access representation. The Act now means that qualifying trade unions will have a clearer right to access workplaces for specific purposes such as meeting, representing, recruiting or organising workers and facilitating collective bargaining. Previously, unions could only access workplaces with the employer's consent or by narrow tribunal orders. 

Plenty to fight for 

While the Act marks a significant step forward for seafarers' rights in UK law, for Nautilus it is not the end of the journey. 

The Act is so sweeping that it will take several years, perhaps up to 2028, to take full effect. In the meantime, we will learn more about the details and how the provisions will be enforced through the secondary legislation – which Nautilus will continue to work on. 

The Union continues to campaign for robust implementation, strong enforcement, and further reforms to address fatigue, rostering and the limits of UK jurisdiction when vessels operate beyond territorial waters. In addition, many of the provisions of the Act will apply only to vessels that call into a UK port more than 120 times within a year – a number that the Union will be working to lower. 

'There are gaps, and where we identify those gaps we will undertake ongoing work after the Act and the secondary legislation comes into force,' Mr Gray says. 'But fundamentally, the work that we have done has delivered for our members.'