April’s UK Employment Law Shakeup: What’s Changed, What’s Emerging and What Employers Should Do Now

Most of the April 2026 employment law changes took effect on 6 April, with the Fair Work Agency formally launching the following day. Over the past week, further detail has also emerged through government guidance, consultation responses and regulatory updates, giving employers a clearer picture of how the reforms will operate in practice.

For employers, this development is the first genuinely operational wave of the Employment Rights Act 2025: not a “watch this space” moment but one of the first key action points.

We briefly highlight below the most significant developments this month and the actions employers should now take.

Statutory Sick Pay Is Broader and Starts Earlier

The Change

From 6 April 2026, statutory sick pay (SSP) is payable from day one of sickness absence. The lower earnings limit has also been removed, meaning more workers qualify for SSP. Beyond the headline removal of waiting days, the reforms also extend SSP eligibility to lower-paid workers who previously fell below the lower earnings limit. For employers with large hourly or casual workforces, it means more employees qualify for SSP than before, potentially increasing short-term absence costs.

SSP for 2026/27 is £123.25 per week (or 80% of weekly earnings if lower).

The Risk

Employers relying on the previous three waiting days or excluding lower-paid workers may now operate outdated payroll and absence processes. For businesses with large hourly or variable workforces, this change could also increase short-term absence costs given the application of sick pay from day one.

The Action

Employers should check payroll methodologies, sickness absence policies and manager guidance to ensure SSP is calculated and applied correctly from day one. Employers should also consider a review of their processes for managing short-term absence in that context.

Paternity Leave and Unpaid Parental Leave Are Now Day-One Rights

The Change

Also from 6 April 2026, employees no longer need qualifying service to be eligible for paternity leave or unpaid parental leave. Previously, employees were required to accrue 26 weeks’ service for paternity leave and one year’s service for unpaid parental leave. The entitlement to bereaved partners’ paternity leave, enabling up to 52 weeks’ unpaid leave where the mother or primary adopter dies within the child’s first year. Statutory paternity pay remains subject to its separate pay rules.

The Risk

Managers and HR teams with systems that still apply service requirements may inadvertently deny statutory leave rights to new joiners. That matters particularly for probationers and businesses with significant ongoing recruitment. Contracts, policies and internal webpages may also be out of date and should be reviewed and updated.

The Action

Employers should update family leave policies and internal webpages to reflect the new requirements. Employers remain entitled to set their own rules on eligibility for company-enhanced pay schemes, and it is important to clearly communicate that to staff if an employer has its own qualifying periods for enhanced pay. Employers should also ensure that managers understand that eligibility for leave (as distinct from pay) now applies from the first day of employment and are equipped to correctly apply the distinction in their engagement with colleagues.

The Cost of Getting Collective Redundancy Wrong Has Doubled

The Change

For dismissals taking effect on or after 6 April 2026, the maximum protective award for failure to comply with collective consultation obligations has doubled from 90 days’ pay to 180 days’ pay per affected employee.

The Risk

This materially changes the risk profile of restructurings — especially when timelines are tight or employers run multiple sites that may be operating independent restructuring processes — given the materially enhanced financial consequences for getting it wrong. It also materially increases the importance, particularly for large employers, of tracking the rolling 90-day window.

The Action

Employers planning restructurings should carefully assess whether collective consultation obligations are triggered and ensure consultation timelines, elected representative arrangements and internal decision-making are properly documented. Multisite employers should consider establishing a central governance process, with one primary point-of-contact responsible for maintaining a repository of all ongoing restructuring processes to the extent one does not already exist.

You Might Have Missed This — Holiday Records Have Quietly Become a Frontline Compliance Issue

The Change

A quieter change that may have slipped under the radar is a new duty for employers to keep adequate records demonstrating compliance with annual leave and holiday pay obligations, and to retain those records for six years.

The Risk

Many organisations already track leave but may not maintain a clear audit trail showing entitlement, leave taken, carryover and holiday pay calculations. Because the change arrived quietly in the commencement regulations, some employers may not yet have systems that capture all of the required information.

The Action

Employers should urgently test whether their systems can demonstrate ongoing and historic compliance with annual leave requirements on an individual basis. This should include entitlement to leave, leave taken, amount paid (and with reference to what reference period), any carryover (and if so, the reason why) and any balance paid in lieu on termination.

The Fair Work Agency Launches

The Change

The Fair Work Agency (FWA) was formally established on 7 April 2026, bringing together several existing labour market enforcement functions. Government factsheets confirm that the agency will initially consolidate these functions, with its remit expanding over time to include areas such as holiday pay and statutory sick pay enforcement.

The wider enforcement framework in the Employment Rights Act 2025 includes notices of underpayment and penalties of up to 200% of the underpayment, subject to statutory caps.

Alongside the launch, the government also published the FWA’s first enforcement policy statement and strategic steer for 2026/27, giving a clearer picture of how enforcement will operate in practice. Investigations may involve information requests, inspections of records, interviews with workers or business representatives and site visits where necessary. Potential noncompliance may be identified through complaints, referrals from other public bodies, intelligence from partner agencies or proactive compliance activity. The FWA also has powers to carry out unannounced investigations.

At our January event on the reforms, FWA Chair Matthew Taylor made much the same point: The immediate priority is continuity – keeping existing enforcement activity running while the different enforcement bodies are brought together.

The Risk

For employers, this change is part of a broader shift away from compliance being tested only if an individual brings a claim. Recordkeeping, wage compliance and repeatable processes will matter more (which is another reason why the new requirements regarding annual leave records mentioned earlier are so important).

The Action

Identify which parts of the business are responsible for holiday pay, SSP, minimum wage and worker records – and whether those records would withstand external scrutiny.

What to Watch Next: Developments Published This Month

The UK government has already begun the next phase of reform with developments published in the past fortnight signalling how certain reforms are likely to operate in practice, and where policy attention may turn next.

TUPE Returns to the Drawing Board

On 8 April, the government launched a call for evidence on the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (TUPE), asking whether the current regime strikes the right balance between protecting employees and supporting employer needs. The questions focus on areas employers regularly find challenging in practice, including consultation requirements, clarity on when a “relevant transfer” occurs, the ability to change terms following a transfer and the overall cost and complexity of the regime. The call for evidence closes on 1 July 2026 and will inform potential future reforms.

Trade Union Access: The Rulebook Lands

Separately, the government has published a draft Code of Practice on trade union right of access, which sets out how unions may request access to workplaces to communicate with workers. The draft code envisages a more structured process for access requests and responses between employers and unions. The draft Code also provides the first detailed operational guidance on how the new trade union workplace access regime is expected to work in practice. It clarifies, among other things, the written process for access requests and employer responses (including template forms), extended timelines for employers to respond and negotiate access arrangements, expectations around recurring and digital access, and confidentiality requirements for meetings, including considering steps where CCTV or monitoring systems could record discussions. The regime also includes significant financial penalties for breaches of statutory access agreements, potentially reaching £500,000.

Implementation Guidance: The ERA Guidance Machine Starts Up

Alongside these policy developments, the government has begun publishing a steady stream of guidance, campaign materials and explainer content through the Employment Rights Act campaign website, including, as of late last week, short YouTube explainers on key reforms such as SSP, parental leave and unfair dismissal. The Department for Business and Trade has also announced a Business Academy webinar on the reforms (23 April), alongside Acas.

The campaign approach was first outlined by Minister Dearden at our January Employment Rights Act event, where the Department confirmed plans for a coordinated employer “priming” campaign and central guidance website designed to give employers practical implementation guidance ahead of phased commencement. None of this material is legally binding. However, in a reform programme where many of the operational details are still being worked through, these materials often provide the earliest signal of how government and regulators expect the new rules to operate in practice. As the FWA beds in and further reforms are developed, employers should expect Acas guidance and government campaign material to evolve quickly and often in parallel.

For employers navigating the new framework, the practical takeaway is simple: Monitor these updates alongside formal guidance when making decisions about how to implement the new rules. In a fast-moving transition period, the interpretation and enforcement of the law is often shaped as much by guidance and regulator messaging as by the legislation itself.

NDAs and Workplace Misconduct — Consultation on New Restrictions

On 15 April, the government launched a consultation on regulations restricting the use of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) in cases of workplace harassment and discrimination, under new section 202A of the Employment Rights Act 1996 introduced by the Employment Rights Act 2025.

Once in force (expected in 2027), NDAs that prevent workers from speaking about harassment, discrimination or an employer’s response will generally be void unless they qualify as an “excepted agreement.” The consultation seeks views on the conditions such agreements would need to meet – including independent legal advice, written worker consent and a cooling-off period – as well as the categories of individuals to whom workers may still make disclosures. The consultation closes on 8 July 2026.

For employers, the proposals signal tighter regulation of confidentiality provisions in settlement agreements involving discrimination or harassment, although NDAs protecting commercial confidentiality or trade secrets would remain unaffected.

Where We See the Real Risk for Employers

1. Holiday Recordkeeping

The new requirement to keep adequate records of annual leave and holiday pay for six years received relatively little attention when the April reforms were announced. Many employers already track leave but fewer maintain a clear audit trail of entitlement, leave taken, carryover and holiday pay calculations. With increased enforcement expected from the FWA, this could quickly become a frontline compliance issue.

2. SSP Reform Expands Eligibility, Not Just Timing

Much of the commentary has focused on SSP becoming payable from day one of absence. However, removing the lower earnings limit also means a wider group of lower-paid workers will now qualify for SSP. For employers with large hourly or variable workforces, the practical impact may therefore be more employees receiving SSP than before, not just receiving it earlier.

The immediate April issues are not the headline reforms coming in during 2027. They are the practical ones: payroll accuracy, family leave eligibility, redundancy discipline, holiday records and enforcement readiness. That is where employers are most likely to trip in the coming weeks.

If any of these changes raise questions for your organisation or if you would simply like to sanity-check that your policies, payroll and processes are keeping up, please do get in touch. We are always happy to talk things through.

3. Trade Union Access — Hiding in Plain Sight?

Much of the commentary on the Employment Rights Act has focused on individual employment rights. But as discussed at our January event, there was discussion of whether the industrial relations reforms (particularly the new trade union workplace access regime covered above) may prove one of the most underestimated aspects of the legislation.

The draft Code of Practice published this month illustrates why. It sets out a structured process for unions to request workplace access, with relatively short timelines for employers to respond and the Central Arbitration Committee able to impose access terms if agreement cannot be reached. Because access can be requested without any membership threshold and may occur on a recurring basis, the regime is designed to facilitate union organising in workplaces where unions currently have little presence.

For employers without historic union engagement, this may represent a significant cultural and operational shift.

If you would like to discuss how any of these developments may affect your organisation, or review your current policies and processes in light of the changes, please contact a member of our team.