April 2026 brought the most significant wave of employment law changes in a generation. The Employment Rights Act 2025 had been making headlines for months beforehand, but the reality of living with those changes is proving to be an entirely different experience for many businesses.
This blog takes stock of what’s changed, what’s proving most challenging for businesses right now, and what employers need to have on their radar for the rest of 2026 and into 2027.
What Employment Law Changes Came Into Force in April 2026?
Before we get into how these updates are landing, it’s worth recapping what changed.
Statutory Sick Pay from day one. SSP now stands at £123.25 per week and is payable from the very first day of sickness absence. The three-day waiting period is gone, and so is the lower earnings limit.
Day-one rights for family leave. Both paternity leave and unpaid parental leave are now available from an employee’s first day with you. The previous qualifying periods no longer apply.
Bereaved partner’s paternity leave. A new right entitles employees to up to 52 weeks of unpaid leave if the child’s primary carer dies within the first year of the child’s life. This is a day-one right with no service requirement.
The redundancy protective award has doubled. If an employer fails to properly consult on collective redundancies (where 20 or more redundancies are proposed within 90 days), the maximum penalty has increased from 90 to 180 days’ pay per affected employee.
Sexual harassment is now a protected disclosure. Employees who report sexual harassment in the workplace are now explicitly protected under whistleblowing law, meaning they cannot be dismissed or treated detrimentally for speaking up.
Holiday record-keeping is now a legal duty. From 6th April, employers are legally required to maintain adequate records of workers’ annual leave. More on this one shortly.
The Fair Work Agency launched on 7th April. A new single enforcement body for employment rights has replaced the previously fragmented system. Again, more on what this means in practice below.
That’s a significant amount of change landing at the same time. And it’s worth remembering that this is still just the first wave; more is coming later in 2026 and into 2027.
How Are the April 2026 Employment Law Changes Landing?
For many businesses, April felt like trying to drink from a firehose. Here’s an honest picture of what employers have been navigating.
Costs are one of the most immediate pressures.
The removal of the SSP waiting period, alongside the rise in minimum wage, is being felt most acutely by industries that hire more part-time or lower-paid staff, such as hospitality and retail.
Research ahead of the changes suggested that around 42% of firms expected the SSP reforms to have a negative impact on their business, and for sectors with high levels of short-term or intermittent absence, that concern is now a lived reality.
What this looks like in practice:
A café chain with 60 staff (mostly part-time) tracked their SSP costs for April. Previously, short-term sickness (one or two days) rarely triggered SSP because of the three-day waiting period.
In April, the amount they had spent on SSP was more than double the normal amount. The difference was all the one-day and two-day absences that never triggered SSP before were now doing so, which had increased spend.
They’re not in crisis. But they are looking carefully at their budget and how they manage absence. For businesses operating on tight margins, these aren’t trivial numbers.
Payroll and HR processes have needed urgent attention.
Some businesses have had to update contracts, employee handbooks, payroll systems and manager guidance in a short window.
What this looks like in practice:
A manufacturing business with 120 employees spent March preparing for the April changes. They updated their employee handbook, revised their absence policy, and briefed managers on the new SSP rules.
What they didn’t catch was how many other documents across the business still referenced the old rules.
In mid-April, a new starter asked their line manager about paternity leave. The manager pulled up the onboarding pack and read: “Paternity leave is available after 26 weeks of continuous service.” The new starter, whose partner was expecting a baby in six weeks, was confused, as they’d seen online that it was now a day-one right.
HR investigated and discovered the problem was everywhere:
- The contract template still mentioned the 26-week qualifying period for paternity leave.
- The managers’ quick reference guide said “SSP from day four of sickness.”
- The poster in the break room about family leave rights was completely outdated.
- Even the intranet FAQ section hadn’t been updated.
They spent the next three weeks conducting a comprehensive audit: searching every document they gave to employees for references to “26 weeks,” “paternity leave,” “three-day waiting period,” and “SSP day four.”
The work got done, but it was reactive rather than planned. And in the meantime, they’d given a new employee incorrect information about their statutory rights.
Day-one family rights are prompting practical questions.
The principle is straightforward: employees can access paternity leave and unpaid parental leave from their first day.
The reality (particularly for smaller teams) is that managing short-notice absences requires clearer processes and better communication.
What this looks like in practice:
A small consultancy hired a new analyst in mid-April. Three weeks into the role, the employee’s childcare arrangement fell through. Their usual childminder gave two weeks’ notice, and the employee couldn’t find immediate replacement care.
The employee requested three weeks of unpaid parental leave to cover the gap while they sorted out alternative childcare. Under the new rules, they’re entitled to this from day one.
Under the old system, the employee wouldn’t have qualified yet (1 year’s service was required). The business would have dealt with this as an absence issue or compassionate leave, with more flexibility about negotiating timing. Now it’s a statutory right with specific notice requirements that must be accommodated.
The employee was still in the middle of learning the business’ systems and hadn’t yet taken ownership of any client work. The leave request created an immediate problem; other team members had to absorb work they’d expected this person to be starting to pick up within a week or two.
They managed, but it required internal reshuffling and adjusting client timelines. More importantly, it highlighted that their onboarding process didn’t account for the possibility of day-one leave requests.
Restructures are being approached more carefully.
The doubling of the protective award has changed how businesses are approaching redundancy. Any organisation considering collective redundancies is now working with significantly higher financial exposure if consultation isn’t handled correctly.
What this looks like in practice:
A logistics company with 180 employees started planning a restructure in late March 2026. They needed to close one of three distribution centres due to a major client contract ending. The proposal would make 28 warehouse and admin roles redundant.
Their initial plan was to announce the restructure in early April, consult for the minimum 30-day period (required for 20-99 redundancies), and complete the process by mid-May.
Then their HR advisor pointed out the protective award change.
Under the old rules, if they got consultation wrong, the maximum penalty was 90 days’ pay per affected employee. Under the new rules, effective from April 6th, it’s 180 days’ pay.
The senior team stopped and reassessed. Were they certain their consultation process was robust? Could they demonstrate they’d genuinely considered alternatives and listened to employee feedback? Was their documentation detailed enough to withstand tribunal scrutiny?
They decided it wasn’t tight enough. They delayed the announcement by three weeks to:
- Strengthen the business case documentation.
- Prepare more detailed financial information to share with employees.
- Create a structured feedback process.
- Identify specific examples of how employee input could genuinely influence the outcome.
- Train the managers who’d be running consultation meetings on what meaningful consultation actually looks like.
When they finally launched the consultation in late April, it was more thorough and better documented than it would have been originally, ensuring that the business remained compliant throughout.
The April Employment Law Change That Flew Under the Radar
Of all the changes that came in on 6th April, the new holiday record-keeping requirement has received the least attention due to it being a late addition to the laws planned to come into force on that day.
From 6th April 2026, it has become a legal requirement under the Employment Rights Act for employers to keep adequate records of annual leave for all workers.
Those records need to cover:
- Any statutory holiday taken.
- Any statutory holiday carried forward to future leave years.
- Statutory holiday pay paid, including how it was calculated and which pay elements were included.
- Payments made in lieu of an untaken statutory holiday on termination of employment.
Importantly, this applies to workers as well as employees, so if you engage contractors or casual workers, this matters for them too. The records need to be kept for six years.
For businesses where annual leave has historically been tracked via email, a shared spreadsheet, or an informal conversation with a line manager, now is the time to put something more robust in place.
With the Fair Work Agency now operational and specifically flagging holiday pay enforcement as an upcoming priority, gaps in your records can become a genuine risk.
If you’d like help reviewing how your HR policies and procedures are set up to meet this requirement, we can help. Find out more about our HR policies and procedures support here.
What Is the Fair Work Agency, and What Should Employers Expect?
The Fair Work Agency opened its doors on 7th April 2026. It brings together employment rights enforcement functions that were previously spread across several different bodies, creating a single point of contact and accountability.
For most businesses, day-to-day enforcement doesn’t look dramatically different right now. The FWA’s immediate focus in this transitional year is on the areas its predecessor bodies covered:
- Regulation of the recruitment agency sector.
- Gangmasters licensing.
- Tackling serious labour abuse and modern slavery.
- National Minimum Wage enforcement.
The Strategic Steer from the Secretary of State sets out that the first full FWA Strategy won’t be published until April 2027. So this isn’t a moment for alarm, but it is a moment to pay attention.
The creation of a single, centralised enforcement body signals a clear direction of travel. The FWA has been designed to join the dots that the previous fragmented system couldn’t. It will share data and intelligence across functions more effectively and pursue non-compliance more proactively.
The good news is that the FWA’s stated purpose is to support businesses that want to do the right thing, not to catch good employers out.
Think of it less as an enforcement threat and more as a signal; the compliance environment is becoming more coherent and more serious, and the best way to be comfortable with that is to have your house (or business, in this case!) in order.
Good records, clear policies, and managers who understand their responsibilities are your best protection.
What’s Still to Come: Employment Law Changes for the Rest of 2026 and Into 2027
April was the first wave, not the full picture. Here’s what’s on the horizon.
October 2026
The tribunal time limit for most employment claims increases from three months to six months. This means issues from earlier in 2026 could result in claims well into next year, and accurate record-keeping becomes even more important as a result.
Employers will also face a stronger legal duty to take “all reasonable steps” to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace, going beyond responding to complaints to actively preventing them.
Tipping law changes will require employers to consult workers before setting a tipping policy. If your business handles tips or service charges, this needs to be on your radar.
Trade unions gain a statutory right of access to workplaces to meet, recruit and represent workers. Employers will also be required to notify employees of their right to join a trade union via their written statement of particulars.
January 2027
The qualifying period for unfair dismissal claims will reduce from two years to six months. This change represents a major shift in the risk profile of early-employment management.
At the same time, the cap on unfair dismissal compensation will be removed entirely. Currently sitting at £125,543, this will become uncapped, which has significant implications for businesses with higher earners.
Fire and rehire will also become an automatically unfair dismissal in most cases.
Turning Compliance Into a Competitive Edge
It’s easy to look at all of the above and see it purely through the lens of cost and obligation. We’d like to encourage a different perspective.
The businesses that will attract and retain the best people over the next few years are the ones that use these changes as an opportunity to build workplaces where people genuinely want to work.
Day-one rights for family leave signal a cultural shift in what employment looks like. Fair sick pay from the moment someone is unwell reflects a genuine commitment to employee wellbeing. Better protections for people raising concerns create workplaces where trust runs both ways.
Employers who embrace that spirit, rather than just the letter of the new legislation, will find that it shows up in their recruitment and their team culture. A workplace where people feel secure and valued from day one is a stronger workplace, full stop.
The compliance work isn’t separate from the people’s work. Done well, it’s the same thing.
The pace of change isn’t slowing down any time soon, but you’re not alone in keeping up with it all.
We work with businesses of all shapes and sizes to make HR straightforward, keeping you on the right side of the law while building the kind of workplace your people deserve.Find out how we can help with your HR policies and procedures, or get in touch to have a conversation about where to start.