06 April has been and gone. After all that noise… no big bang, no chaos. It even landed on a bank holiday. Easy to feel like it’s business as usual. It’s not.
The first wave of Employment Rights Act changes are now live. Some bring immediate cost increases. Others quietly increase legal risk. The foundations need to be in place now.
This blog is longer than usual. Deliberately so. We’ve brought together everything that’s changed on 06 and 07 April, and what employers should be doing, or have already done about it. Because if you’re not across them already, you’re already on the back foot. Click the links below to jump straight to each section.
1. Statutory Sick Pay overhaul
What’s changed?
From 06 April 2026, Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) has been fundamentally changed:
- No waiting days – SSP is now payable from day one of absence
- No lower earnings limit – all employees qualify, regardless of earnings
- New payment structure – £123.25 per week or 80% of average weekly earnings (for lower earners)
This is one of the most commercially significant changes under the ERA.
What does this mean in practice?
Short-term absence is likely to increase – removing waiting days lowers the barrier to taking sick leave. Expect a spike in the short term, particularly in one to three-day absences.
Immediate cost increase – more employees qualifying, paid sooner, means a direct increase in employer cost.
Phased returns potentially easier – a rare upside! Employees aren’t financially penalised for partial returns, making gradual reintegration more workable.
What should employers prioritise?
Plan for increased absence – build contingency into resourcing if you’ve not already done so.
Update contracts and policies – remove waiting days and outdated eligibility criteria.
Tighten absence management – clear triggers, consistent return-to-work meetings, early intervention.
Track your data properly – you can’t manage what you can’t see. Make sure you have the right systems in place to record and analyse your absence metrics.
Equip managers – managing absence lands with them first so make sure they’re trained and up to speed with your processes to implement them consistently.
2. Sexual harassment now a whistleblowing issue
What’s changed?
From 06 April 2026, reporting sexual harassment can qualify as a protected disclosure. That means whistleblowing protections apply, including protection from detriment and dismissal.
What does this mean in practice?
Legal risk increases significantly – mishandling complaints now carries whistleblowing risk on top of harassment risk.
Manager reactions matter more than ever – off-the-cuff responses or poor handling could trigger additional claims.
Processes will overlap – harassment and whistleblowing frameworks are no longer separate in practice.
What should employers prioritise?
Review and align policies – ensure whistleblowing and harassment policies work together.
Train managers – initial responses to complaints are critical.
Handle complaints carefully – to avoid any perception of retaliation or potential dismissal risk.
Robust investigations – your process and documentation often matter just as much as the outcome.
Join the internal dots – HR, legal, and management approaches need to be aligned.
3. Day-one family leave rights
What’s changed?
From 06 April 2026:
- Parental leave is now a day-one right (previously one year’s service required)
- Paternity leave is now a day-one right (previously 26 weeks’ service required)
- Employees can now take paternity leave after Shared Parental Leave
Alongside this, a new right to bereaved partner’s paternity leave has been introduced (not technically part of the ERA).
What hasn’t changed:
- Notice requirements remain (21 days for parental leave, specific timelines for paternity leave)
- Pay entitlement still depends on service
What does this mean in practice?
Not a major operational shock – this is less about volume (as these are still underutilised rights), but more about getting decisions right and administrative risks.
Risk of incorrect refusals – managers used to service thresholds may reject valid requests if they’re not up to speed with the changes.
Bereavement cases require sensitivity and care – this is a legally and emotionally high-risk area if handled poorly.
Transitional quirks – employees gaining eligibility could give notice from 18 February 2026, so some requests may already have landed.
What should employers prioritise?
Update policies – remove service requirements and include bereaved partner leave.
Update templates and systems – ensure letters and workflows reflect day-one rights.
Train managers – avoid incorrect refusals and handle sensitive situations properly.
Sense-check processes – make sure notice requirements and workflows are correctly applied.
Plan for edge cases – particularly around how you handle early notice and transitional scenarios.
4. Collective consultation penalties doubled
What’s changed?
For dismissals on or after 06 April 2026, the maximum compensation for failure to comply with collective consultation obligations increases from 90 days’ pay to 180 days’ pay per employee.
What does this mean in practice?
Risk exposure has doubled overnight – errors in collective consultation are now significantly more expensive.
Timing mistakes are costly – late starts or misjudging thresholds can have major financial consequences.
Risk often sits outside HR – senior leaders making commercial decisions may not fully understand consultation obligations.
The government is currently consulting on two different options to set a new organisation-wide threshold that will use either a single fixed number in the range of 250 to 1,000, or, tiering the threshold based on number of employees.
What should employers prioritise?
Meaningful consultation – consultation must be genuine, not a tick-box exercise.
Spot the trigger early – 20+ redundancies means collective obligations may apply (subject to proposed changes to trigger threshold).
Get timelines right – start consultation early enough to comply fully.
Train decision-makers – not just HR. Make sure all those leading restructures have full awareness.
Take advice early – prevention is significantly cheaper than remedy.
5. Trade union recognition
What’s changed?
Union recognition has become easier with lower voting thresholds and fewer barriers to securing recognition.
Further reforms are expected in October 2026, but these April changes already shift the landscape.
What does this mean in practice?
Recognition becomes more achievable for unions – it will take less employee backing for unions to gain recognition, increasing the likelihood of formal recognition processes being triggered.
Employee voice becomes more important than ever – where employees don’t feel heard internally, they are more likely to look externally.
Early warning signs matter – increased union activity often reflects underlying engagement or communication gaps.
What should employers prioritise?
Strengthen employee voice – forums, surveys, and visible follow-through from leadership.
Focus on culture – employees who feel listened to are less likely to seek external representation.
Train managers – ensure they understand how to respond appropriately to union-related activity.
Keep a watching brief – further changes are coming later in 2026 with unions gaining a right of access to your workplace (with significant fines of up to £500,000 for non-compliance!).
6. Holiday record-keeping is a legal duty
What’s changed?
A last-minute, unexpected compliance obligation – employers must now create and retain records demonstrating compliance with statutory holiday entitlement and pay, and keep those records for at least six years. Employers now need to maintain records covering:
Statutory leave entitlement – including:
- The core four-week entitlement
- Additional statutory leave
- Calculations for irregular hours workers
Holiday pay calculations – including:
- How holiday pay is calculated
- How much holiday pay is paid, including on termination
What does this mean in practice?
Non-compliance carries real risk – failure to comply may amount to a criminal offence, punishable by a fine.
The bar has been raised – many employers already keep records but not always to the level, consistency, or retention period now required.
Enforcement risk is increasing – with the Fair Work Agency now in place, record-keeping failures are far more likely to be identified and challenged.
What should employers prioritise?
Audit your current records – are you capturing enough detail to demonstrate compliance? If not, identify and close the gaps.
Check retention periods – ensure systems retain holiday and pay data for at least six years.
Test your systems – if you needed to tomorrow, could you actually retrieve six years’ worth of data quickly and accurately?
Review holiday pay calculations – particularly where overtime, commission, or variable pay is involved.
Update policies and processes – make sure documentation reflects the new requirement and that teams are applying it consistently.
7. The Fair Work Agency
What’s changed?
From 07 April 2026, a new Fair Work Agency is in place, bringing together:
- HMRC’s National Minimum Wage enforcement
- Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority
- Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate
This creates a single enforcement body with significantly expanded powers.
What does this mean in practice?
Proactive enforcement – this won’t be complaint-led. The Agency can investigate without a worker complaining first.
Significant financial exposure – up to six years’ underpayments recoverable with penalties of up to 200% of sums owed.
Serious enforcement powers – including entering premises, accessing records, and bringing tribunal claims on behalf of workers.
For many employers, particularly in sectors like retail, hospitality, and care, this represents a fundamental shift. Practices that have historically gone unchallenged may not withstand scrutiny.
A note of realism if we may – enforcement bodies are only usually as effective as their funding. Whether this becomes a genuine step change or a rebrand of existing enforcement will depend on investment. But relying on that uncertainty would be a risky strategy, The Agency will likely be looking to show its teeth early.
What should employers prioritise?
Get your house in order – focus on NMW and holiday pay compliance first.
Audit pay practices – bonus, commission, and overtime all impact holiday pay.
Check NMW compliance carefully – uniforms, deductions, and salaried worker rules are all common pitfalls.
Strengthen record-keeping – documentation must stand up to inspection.
Prepare for scrutiny – assume proactive investigation is a real possibility.
8. How can we help?
Phew! We got there – that was a lot, wasn’t it? And that’s only the first wave of change.
Managing these changes will look different for every organisation, but the direction of travel is clear – more cost, more complexity, and more risk. As a minimum, you should be:
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Updating contracts, policies, and templates
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Training managers to apply changes consistently and confidently
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Reviewing processes to handle increased absence, leave requests, and ER risk
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Strengthening oversight of pay, compliance, and record-keeping
- Considering whether you have the HR and ER resource to manage the increased workload
If you need support sense-checking your approach or getting everything aligned, we’re here to help – get in touch.
This update is accurate on the date it was published but may be subject to change which may or may not be notified to you. This update is not to be taken as advice and you should seek advice if anything contained within affects you or your business or organisation.
