The Employment Rights Act 2025
The parliamentary process has now come to an end, and the Employment Rights Bill has received Royal Assent and will now become the Employment Rights Act 2025. In this blog I will look at what is happening in April 2026 and how you can prepare.
Extended Eligibility for Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) – Implementation April 2026
The Employment Rights Bill makes SSP available to all workers by removing the 3-day waiting period. SSP will be payable from the first day of a period of sickness and the requirement to earn at least the lower earnings limit will be removed. When off sick, employees will be entitled to the SSP rate or 80% of their average earnings (if earnings are lower than the SSP rate).
Action required:
· If you only pay SSP then this change will increase your sickness absence costs as employees will be entitled to be paid SSP from the first day of absence, budget for increased costs.
· Audit contracts of employment and policy wording to ensure that this fits with the new rules. (for retainer clients policies and contracts will be reviewed as part of your HR advice contract).
· Consider whether this might be a good time to review your sickness absence processes and to ensrue your managers are confident in managing sickness absence. Whilst every organisation must expect a level of sickness absence it is important to manage this and, where possible, keep it to a manageable level.
Statutory Paternity Leave to become a day one right – Implementation April 2026
The new legislation will remove the qualifying period for paternity leave (currently 26 weeks) and make this a day one right.
Action required:
· Audit contracts and policies to ensrue that they are amended to reflect the change in legislation (for retainer clients policies and contracts will be reviewed as part of your HR advice contract).
· New eligible parents will be able to give notice of their intention to take this leave from 18 February 2026 paternity leave can then be taken from 6 April 2026.
· Communicate updated policies to your team.
Ordinary Parental Leave to become a day one right – Implementation April 2026
Ordinary parental leave has been available for many years, this leave gives the right to employees who have a child under the age of 18 to take up to 18 weeks unpaid leave in respect of each child. Currently to be eligible for this leave the employee must have 1 years’ service. From 6 April 2026 this will become a day one right.
Action required:
· Audit contracts and policies to ensrue that they are amended to reflect the change in legislation (for retainer clients policies and contracts will be reviewed as part of your HR advice contract).
· Factor this change into discussions with employees if requests are made for Parental Leave.
Sexual Harassment added to Whistleblowing legislation – Implementation April 2026
The new legislation amends the whistleblowing provisions so that complaints of sexual harassment will be treated as protected disclosures.
Action required:
· Update existing whistleblowing policy to ensure the policy includes sexual harassment under the category of wrongdoing
· Take steps to avoid third party harassment (this will become law from October 2026)
· Plan ahead to avoid complaints of sexual harassment, ensrue that your policy is up-to-date and is communicated effectively. Take steps to ensrue your managers are confident in assessing, managing and preventing the risk of sexual harassment at work.
In addition to these changes, the Employment Rights Act 2025 will also cover the following changes in April 2026:
· Immigration Reforms
· The establishment of a Fair Work Agency
· New statutory maternity, paternity and sick pay rates
· Reform of trade union laws
· Increase to the protective award. This is the maximum compensation a tribunal can award where an employer has failed to comply with their collective redundancy consultation obligations. This will double from 90 days to 180 days pay.
After April 2026 the next wave of changes will be introduced in October 2026.
Unfair Dismissal Claims
It was previously proposed that the right to make an unfair dismissal claim would be a day one right, the government have now confirmed that this will be set at 6 months. This means the qualification period to make a claim of unfair dismissal will be reduced from 2 years to 6 months.
This protection will take effect retrospectively from 1 January 2027 (meaning that employees hired from 1 July 2026 would gain protection from unfair dismissal after six months).
The news headlines can be confusing around when these changes will impact your business – please feel free to drop me an email or give me a call if you would like to discuss this further. For retainer clients we will review your documentation and send you updates before these changes become effective.
