Employment law just changed. This is only the start.
April 2026 marks the beginning of the core rollout of the biggest overhaul of UK employment law in a generation. Several changes are already in effect. More are coming. All of them matter if you employ people.
Need to know points
Statutory Sick Pay now applies from day one of sickness; no three-day wait. The rate is the lower of 123.25 per week or 80% of weekly earnings, with no minimum earnings threshold to qualify.
Paternity leave and unpaid parental leave are both day-one rights so now is an excellent time to review your family and compassionate leave policies.
A new Fair Work Agency is operating, with powers to inspect businesses and enforce employment rights directly. Ensure pay and leave records are properly documented.
If you make 20 or more redundancies without following the correct consultation process, the penalty has doubled to 180 days’ pay per employee.
Still to come
From October, employers become liable for harassment by third parties unless they’ve taken all reasonable steps to prevent it.
And then there’s January 2027…
From 1 January 2027, unfair dismissal protection dramatically changes. Right now, an employee needs two years’ service to bring an unfair dismissal claim. This will drop to six months.
Fire and rehire (dismissing someone to rehire them on worse terms) will also become automatically unfair in most cases from the same date.
Zero-hours workers will gain new rights to guaranteed hours in 2027...
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