Changes to day one employee rights from 6 April

CIPD HR-inform. Croner

The overhaul of employment rights under the Employment Rights Act (ERA 25) is upon us with sweeping changes to the law for employers, from enhanced sick pay to day one paternity leave for staff.

Bringing the provisions of the Employment Rights Act 2025 into force is a complicated process. The Act itself is merely a starting point - from it, a huge amount of secondary legislation needs to be created to bring it to life and that takes a significant amount of time.

That’s why it is being implemented in stages, with many notable reforms coming in on 6 April 2026, then others later in the year in October 2026 and more in 2027, notably changes to probationary periods with a new six-month cap from January 2027, which will affect hirings this autumn. There will also be more supporting and transitional changes being brought into law as and when needed.

From 6 April 2026, the following reforms are coming into effect:

• reforms to statutory sick pay (SSP)

• removal of qualifying service requirement for paternity and parental leave

• requirement to keep annual leave records

• inclusion of disclosures relating to sexual harassment in list of ‘qualifying disclosures’

• increase to maximum protective award in collective consultation situations

• trade union balloting and recognition process reforms

• establishment of Fair Work Agency (FWA).

Statutory sick pay

Under the pre-6 April 2026 rules, statutory sick pay (SSP) was paid at a flat rate to workers who earn at least the lower earnings limit (LEL) on average and only once the worker had served three ‘waiting days’.

The new rules are much more generous.

For absences on or after 6 April 2026, the requirement to earn above the lower earnings limit is removed, as is the need to serve waiting days.

All workers will be entitled to either 80% of their usual earnings or the flat statutory SSP rate, whichever is lower, from the first day of absence. This brings many more workers into the scope of SSP payments.

Transitional SSP arrangements

To assist employers in managing ongoing sickness absence cases straddling the old and new system, HMRC published guidance clarifying how various cases should be dealt with. These are as follows.

The employee is off sick before 6 April 2026 but does not earn over the LEL

In this case, the employee would be paid SSP from 6 April, at a rate of 80% of their pay where it is less than then the SSP rate.

The employee is off sick before 6 April 2026 but are in the ‘waiting days’ period

The employee will be entitled to SSP from 6 April 2026 but should not be paid SSP for any waiting days already served.

Complex absences with part returns to work

The employee has been off sick before 6 April 2026, received SSP, returned to work and restarted a sickness absence from 4 or 5 April 2026 which continues on or after 6 April 2026.

If the absence is for three days or less, SSP is only paid for qualifying days on or after 6 April 2026. If the absence is for four days or more, SSP is paid for any qualifying days from the first day of the restarted sickness absence.

The employee is receiving SSP prior to 6 April 2026

In this case, they should receive the new flat SSP rate from 6 April 2026, even if their average weekly earnings would usually mean their SSP rate is 80% of their pay.

This will be the case until they exhaust their SSP entitlement or that absence ends.

With these changes, it will become even more important for employers to take steps to minimise sickness absence by taking charge of things within their control.

This could include keeping a close eye on workload and working conditions to avoid burnout, implementing robust measures to prevent employees from feigning sickness and managing long-term absences to ensure a smooth and swift return to work.

Paternity and parental leave

The qualifying service period for paternity and unpaid parental leave has been removed. This means that from 6 April 2026 they are day one rights.

For paternity leave, this applies to parents of children that:

•            have an expected week of childbirth (EWC) on or after 5 April 2026

•            are born on or after 6 April 2026

•            are placed for adoption on or after 6 April 2026.

Parents of children born or adopted before the above date(s) must still have 26 weeks’ service, counted at the 15th week before the expected week of childbirth, or in the week their partner is notified of being matched for adoption, to take paternity leave.

Despite the changes, the usual notice requirements apply.

A transition period is in place for paternity leave that temporarily reduces the notification requirement to 28 days in respect of babies with an expected week of childbirth between 5 April 2026 and 25 July 2026, where the parent became eligible to take paternity leave as a result of the removal of the qualifying service requirements.

Sexual harassment

Disclosures about sexual harassment that has occurred, is occurring, or is likely to occur, will qualify as a ‘protected disclosure’ from 6 April 2026.

As a result, employees making a qualifying disclosure in relation to sexual harassment will be protected from suffering a detriment and any dismissal for this reason would be automatically unfair.

As with other qualifying disclosures, the disclosure does not need to be substantiated, however the individual must have reasonable belief that it is true, and it must be in the public interest. This means that disclosures of individual instances of sexual harassment that do not affect others are unlikely to fall under the protections of the whistleblowing protections.

Annual leave records

Despite not previously being included in the government’s April 2026 timeline, reforms to the Working Time Regulations were included in the Employment Rights Act 2025 (Commencement No.2 and Transitional and Saving Provisions) (Amendment) Regulations 2026, passed into legislation on 16 March 2026.

Now, from 6 April 2026, employers are required to keep records of their compliance with the law on employee annual leave and pay, including the payment of outstanding leave on termination of employment.

These records must be kept for six years. Failure to do so will be a criminal offence with the potential for unlimited fines. Once it has the necessary powers, enforcement of this will fall with the newly set up Fair Work Agency.

Useful reading: Employers must retain annual leave records for six years

Collective consultation

Collective consultation requirements apply in large redundancy or fire and re-hire situations, where 20 or more people are likely to be dismissed because of the process. From 6 April 2026, the maximum award increases from up to 90 days’ pay to up to 180 days’ pay for dismissals on or after 6 April 2026, regardless of when the collective consultation started.

Trade unions

Further changes include the removal of the 40% support threshold from recognition ballots; and the requirement for a union to demonstrate there is likely to be majority support for recognition.

Fair Work Agency

The Fair Work Agency (FWA), established on 7 April 2026, creates a single body for employers and workers to access information about their rights and ensure legal compliance. It has taken over enforcement of employment rights and statutory protections for workers by bringing together the powers of various separate agencies, incuding HMRC minimum wage team, the Gangmasters and the Labour Abuse Authority. Eventually, it will take on responsibility for a wider range of employment rights too, including non compliance with the new raft of employment rights.

The implementation timescale for the full powers of the FWA has not yet been released.

Takeaway

These changes will have a big impact on employers and, if not in place already, employers should take urgent steps to ensure their policies, procedures and practices have been amended to ensure compliance with the law.

Updating employment contracts is vital to reflect the new rules. All Business & Accountancy Daily subscribers can access a Free Business Protect download of an employment contract template

By Stacie Cheadle, technical writer at Croner