The Employment Rights Act 2025 is now officially in force, as of 6 April 2026.
This is one of the most significant overhauls of employment law in recent years. It forms part of the government’s wider ‘Make Work Pay’ agenda and introduces new protections for workers while placing additional obligations on employers.
While this is a significant milestone, it is only the start of a phased implementation which will continue throughout 2026 and into 2027.
The main changes as of 6 April 2026 are:
- Statutory Sick Pay (SSP)
- The three waiting days have been removed, meaning that SSP is payable from day one of sickness absence.
- The lower earnings limit has been removed, meaning that more workers are eligible for SSP.
- The amount of SSP is now the lower of 80% of the person’s Average Weekly Earnings (AWE), based on the previous 8 weeks’ earnings, and the flat rate of £123.25 per week (which is expected to increase each April)
- Paternity leave is a day one right, but statutory paternity pay still requires 26 weeks’ service.
- Unpaid parental leave is now a ‘day one’ right.
- Bereaved Partner’s Paternity Leave is a new ‘day one’ right to up to 52 weeks of unpaid leave when an employee’s partner dies when the child is under one year old, and that partner is the employee’s child’s mother or the employee’s child’s primary adopter.
- Sexual harassment disclosures now count as whistleblowing and therefore automatically give workers protection from detrimental treatment or dismissal. Previously, a worker would have to claim that any disclosure regarding sexual harassment fell under another category of whistleblowing, such as a danger to health and safety. Such employees can still be dismissed for unrelated reasons, but employers will have to show that the dismissal is not because of the disclosure itself.
- Employers must keep detailed records of holiday pay for at least six years. There is no current guidance on exactly how to keep such records, only that they should be in a format that the employer reasonably thinks fit. This includes documenting leave taken, holiday pay calculations, payment dates, and all variable pay components, including overtime, commission, and bonuses. The failure to do so is a criminal offence and may lead to a penalty notice of up to 200% of the underpaid amount.
- The maximum protective award for failure to comply with collective consultation obligations in a redundancy process will increase from 90 days’ pay to 180 days’ pay. Collective means twenty or more redundancies are proposed at one establishment within a 90 day period.
- Trade union recognition and member protections are significantly strengthened, with simplified recognition procedures, lower membership thresholds, and enhanced legal safeguards for union activity.
Large employers are encouraged (but not yet required) by the government to voluntarily publish gender pay gap action plans and menopause action plans.
The Fair Work Agency launched on 7 April 2026. This is a new enforcement body with powers to pursue underpayment of NMW, SSP and holiday pay, backed by civil and criminal penalties.
The changes due later in 2026 are:
- Electronic and workplace voting for trade union ballots;
- Increased duties on employers to prevent sexual harassment;
- Stronger trade union access rights; and
- More requirements linked to fair pay agreements and labour market enforcement.
The changes due in 2027 are:
- The reduction of the qualifying period for unfair dismissal claims from two years to six months;
- Stronger protections against ‘fire and rehire’; and
- Reforms relating to guaranteed hours and low hours contracts.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact one of our HR Advisors by emailing hr@perspectivehr.co.uk or by phoning 01392 247436.