A new power to set safety and rest rules for seafarers came into force this week. It is missing from the government's own list of October's changes; the rules themselves are not due until December.
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
.jpg){kind=link}
In short. Section 56 and Schedule 5 of the Employment Rights Act 2025, which restructure seafarers' pay and working-conditions law and create a wholly new power to set rest and fatigue rules, came into force on 30 October 2026 under the same commencement order as the Act's sexual harassment and trade union measures [1]. The government's own itemised list of "measures that took effect on 30 October 2026" names the other two and not this one [5]. Both of its live timetables instead date the substance to 1 December 2026, under two different names [4] [5]. Two documented mistakes: four stars.
This site tested the Employment Rights Act 2025's sexual harassment provisions against the Department for Business and Trade's implementation roadmap on 21 October, and the roadmap's confusion with a companion timetable on 25 October [7] [8]. Both pieces, and separate coverage of the Act's trade union access and recognition measures, centred on provisions that commenced on 30 October 2026 [1]. A fourth provision commenced under the identical order, the same day, and has had no coverage anywhere on this site until now: section 56 and Schedule 5, seafarers' wages and working conditions [2].
Schedule 5 rewrites large parts of the Seafarers' Wages Act 2023, the law passed after mass pay disputes on cross-Channel ferry routes gave non-UK-flagged crews no guaranteed right to the National Minimum Wage while working in British waters [2]. The existing wage-equivalence declaration system continues by default: the Act's own text says the old chapter "applies to a relevant service, subject to provision made by remuneration regulations", and no remuneration regulations exist yet to switch it off [2]. But Schedule 5 also inserts an entirely new Part 3 into the 2023 Act: "safe working regulations", a power for the Secretary of State to set maximum working periods, minimum rest periods and fatigue-management requirements for seafarers on qualifying routes, enforced through harbour authorities with a new criminal offence for authorities that fail to request compliance declarations [2]. Nothing like it existed in the 2023 Act. Section 56 brings the whole of Schedule 5 into force on 30 October 2026, confirmed directly on legislation.gov.uk's own commencement record for the section [3].
What the government's own account of the day leaves out
The Department for Business and Trade publishes two live timetables for the Act on the same gov.uk page. The "timeline update" document, the more detailed of the two, has a dedicated heading: "Measures that took effect on 30 October 2026." Under it, it lists the trade union measures in full, then "the harassment measures", also in full, including the sexual harassment reasonable-steps power this site tested on 21 October [5]. Seafarers do not appear under that heading, or anywhere near it. The only seafarer-related entry in the whole document sits three headings later, under "Measures that will take effect on 1 December 2026": a single line reading "introducing Seafarer Protection Regulations" [5].
The companion roadmap, republished 14 October and already shown by this site's earlier pieces to be running a year behind on a different provision, does the same thing in less detail. Its "Measures that will take effect in October 2026" list runs to eleven bullet points, covering fire and rehire, tipping law, trade union access and the harassment duties, and does not mention seafarers once [4]. Immediately after that list, on its own line, the roadmap adds: "Commencement of the Mandatory Seafarers Charter is expected to be in December 2026" [4]. Two government documents, one naming it Seafarer Protection Regulations, the other the Mandatory Seafarers Charter, neither explaining whether the two names mean the same thing, agree on one point: nothing seafarer-related happened in October, and the real change is a December event, dated specifically to 1 December by the more detailed of the two.
That is not what the commencement order itself says. The Employment Rights Act 2025 (Commencement No. 6 and Transitional and Saving Provisions) Regulations 2026, made 1 October 2026, bring section 56 and the whole of Schedule 5 into force on 30 October 2026 in exactly the same regulation, under exactly the same list, as the harassment and trade union measures the department's own timeline does credit to that date [1]. Unlike the trade union schedule commenced the same day, Schedule 5 carries no transitional or saving provision deferring any part of it; it simply applies from 30 October 2026 [1].
A power with nothing in it yet
The gap is not only presentational. The new "safe working regulations" power is, by the Act's own drafting, inert until exercised: no maximum working period, minimum rest period or fatigue-management rule applies to any seafarer unless and until the Secretary of State makes regulations setting one [2]. None have been made. The government's own timeline places the first ones, whatever they turn out to be called, five weeks after the power that would let them exist became law [5]. A seafarer working a UK-France or Channel Islands crossing today has exactly the same statutory protection against fatigue and excessive hours as they did on 29 October, the power to change that having come into force with nothing yet attached to it.
The claims, tested
| What the government's own documents say | What the primary legislation shows | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| The timeline update's "Measures that took effect on 30 October 2026" heading lists the trade union and harassment measures in full [5] | The same commencement order brings section 56 and Schedule 5, seafarers' wages and working conditions, into force on the same date, with no transitional deferral [1] | A document built specifically to itemise what changed on 30 October 2026 omits a provision that changed on 30 October 2026 |
| The roadmap: "Commencement of the Mandatory Seafarers Charter is expected to be in December 2026" [4]. The timeline update: "introducing Seafarer Protection Regulations" takes effect 1 December 2026 [5] | The power that would let either measure be made, Schedule 5's new "safe working regulations", is already law from 30 October 2026, with no content until the Secretary of State acts [2] | Two documents, two names, one month's gap between the power existing and anything being done with it, with neither document saying so |
Credit where due
The department has not gone quiet on seafarers' welfare generally. A press notice from 5 June 2026 set out a live consultation on extending minimum rest periods and National Minimum Wage-equivalent pay to UK-France and Channel Islands crossings beyond territorial waters, and published the department's own compliance assessment of named operators against the existing, voluntary Seafarers' Charter: DFDS, Brittany Ferries and Stena Line were confirmed as meeting it in full, and P&O Ferries was recorded as meeting every requirement bar one aspect of social welfare provision [6]. That is active, named, checkable oversight of an industry the department does not have to publicise so specifically. The finding here is narrower than "nothing is happening": it is that the legal power enabling the next stage already exists, and the department's own account of what changed in October does not say so.
Verdict
Four stars, from two documented mistakes. Schedule 5 is a real expansion of what Parliament has empowered a minister to do for seafarers, not a cosmetic rewrite. But the government's own itemised record of what commenced on 30 October 2026 leaves it out entirely, and the measure that would give the new power any content is dated a month later under two different names in two different documents, with no sign either was checked against the commencement order both are meant to describe.
The star score counts two documented mistakes. First, the Department for Business and Trade's "timeline update" document, under its own heading "Measures that took effect on 30 October 2026", lists the Act's trade union and sexual harassment measures in full but omits section 56 and Schedule 5 (seafarers' wages and working conditions), which the Employment Rights Act 2025 (Commencement No. 6 and Transitional and Saving Provisions) Regulations 2026 bring into force on the same date, in the same instrument, with no transitional deferral. Second, Schedule 5's new "safe working regulations" power, covering rest periods and fatigue management for seafarers, is inert until the Secretary of State makes regulations under it; none exist, and the government's own timetables place the first substantive measure, called Seafarer Protection Regulations in one document and the Mandatory Seafarers Charter in the other, on 1 December 2026, five weeks after the enabling power itself became law. Two falls in the 1 to 3 band: four stars; the bands are on the ratings page. This piece makes no finding about the adequacy of the eventual regulations, the department's consultation on UK-France routes, or the existing wage-equivalence regime, which continues unaffected; the finding is narrower, that the department's own account of what took effect on 30 October 2026 does not match what its own commencement order says took effect that day. Checked directly against the commencement order, the Act's own text and both of the department's live timetables, all fetched and read in full 31 October 2026.
Sources
- The Employment Rights Act 2025 (Commencement No. 6 and Transitional and Saving Provisions) Regulations 2026, legislation.gov.uk, made 1 October 2026, in force 30 October 2026
- Employment Rights Act 2025, Schedule 5, legislation.gov.uk
- Employment Rights Act 2025, section 56, legislation.gov.uk
- Implementing the Plan to Make Work Pay and Employment Rights Act: roadmap, Department for Business and Trade, republished 14 October 2026
- Plan to Make Work Pay and Employment Rights Act: timeline update, Department for Business and Trade, updated 22 October 2026
- Thousands of seafarers across the Channel set for better pay and protections under new government proposals, Department for Transport, 5 June 2026
- Employment Rights Act: Day One dismissal, six months, Tracked Changes, 14 September 2026
- Sexual harassment duty: reasonable steps regs delayed 2027, Tracked Changes, 21 October 2026