Employment Rights Act 2025 – Key April 2026 developments
Further commencement regulations bring significant reforms into force, including day one SSP, enhanced enforcement powers and wider workplace obligations.
Looking for more detail on how the Employment Rights Act could affect your organisation? Our Employment Rights Act tracker gives you a structured, up to date view of the reforms, with clear timelines, practical commentary and prompts to help you understand what is changing, when it matters, and what to do next.
Background
The Employment Rights Act 2025 continues to be implemented in stages following Royal Assent in December 2025. A series of commencement regulations made in March 2026 bring a number of important provisions into force across April 2026, alongside developments in the new enforcement framework.
Key developments
From April 2026, several notable changes take effect.
Statutory sick pay (SSP) has been reformed with effect from 6 April 2026. SSP will become payable from the first day of absence, removing the previous three-day waiting period. In addition, the lower earnings limit will be removed, extending SSP eligibility to lower-paid workers. For those employees, SSP will be calculated as the lower of the standard rate and 80% of normal weekly earnings.
A number of wider employment law reforms also come into force on 6 April 2026. These include expanding whistleblowing protection to cover disclosures relating to sexual harassment, increasing the maximum protective award for failures in collective redundancy consultation, introducing powers to require large employers to publish equality action plans on a voluntary basis from this year, and on a mandatory basis from spring 2027, and imposing new obligations to keep records relating to annual leave.
Changes to trade union recognition rules also take effect, including simplifying the statutory recognition process and reducing the thresholds required for unions to secure recognition in certain circumstances.
Separately, further regulations introduce enhanced day one rights, including the removal of qualifying service requirements for paternity leave.
From 7 April 2026, a new enforcement framework comes into operation through the Fair Work Agency. This body will take over existing enforcement functions in areas such as agency work and labour exploitation, and will have wide-ranging powers to investigate non-compliance, issue notices of underpayment and bring proceedings. An advisory board has now been appointed, comprising representatives from employers, trade unions and independent experts.
Learning points for employers
These developments represent a significant shift in both employee rights and enforcement risk. Employers should review sickness absence processes and payroll systems to ensure compliance with the new SSP rules, particularly given the removal of the waiting period and expanded eligibility.
More broadly, the introduction of day one rights and a strengthened enforcement regime increases the importance of robust internal processes. Employers should ensure that policies, record-keeping practices and family leave arrangements are up to date, and that managers are equipped to handle issues such as whistleblowing, harassment complaints and workforce restructuring in a compliant and consistent way.
Follow our Employment Rights Act tracker to keep up to date with key developments.
For more information or advice, please get in touch with Jessica Scott-Dye in our Employment team.
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