Employment Rights Bill – Upcoming Changes April 2026

Now that the Employment Rights Act 2025 is an official piece of legislation, the first wave of changes are coming into effect in April 2026.

1. Day One Family Leave Rights

a. The 26 week qualifying period for paternity leave will be removed from 6 April 2026. It will apply to babies born after 6 April 2026.

b. The one year continuous service requirement for unpaid parental leave will be abolished

2. Statutory Sick Pay – this will now become available from the first day of sickness and the waiting
period of the first three days will be removed.

In addition, the lower earnings level will be removed (this is currently £123 per week) and this will help low paid workers. SSP will now be paid at the lower of £123.25 (the rate applicable from 6 April 2026) or 80% of the employee’s normal weekly earnings.

3. Collective Redundancy – the maximum that a protective award can be given for a failure to collectively consult will increase from 90 days to 180 days pay.

4. Fair Work Agency – this will be established as a new single regulator to enforce payment of national minimum wage, holiday pay and compliance with SSP entitlement

5. Bereavement Leave – there will now be a new statutory day one right to unpaid bereaved partner’s paternity leave, allowing fathers or partners to take up to 52 weeks leave if the motheror primary adopter  dies.

Further regulations to follow.

6. New statutory pay rights

Statutory maternity, paternity, adoption, shared parental, parental bereavement and neonatal care increases to £194.32 per week

7. Increase to National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage

This increases to £12.71 per hour. For 18 – 20 year olds, the rate increases to £10.85 and for 16 – 17 year olds, the rate increases to £8.00.

8. Strengthened Whistleblowing Protections

The rules will be expanded to cover disclosures covering sexual harassment.