Employment law in 2026 – what to expect

January 21, 2026 8:14 pm Published by

Employment Rights Act 2025

As you will have heard, the Employment Rights Bill is due to become the Employment Rights Act 2025. So what does this mean for employers? Well the biggest change will be that employees will be able to claim unfair dismissal once they have six months’ service. This is likely to take effect from January 2027.


Action required: Ensure that your contracts of employment include a probationary period of 6 months and that line managers are reviewing employee performance from 2 months onwards, so that new staff are given a chance to address issues and if they are not meeting the standard of performance required they are given notice before 6 months.

Changes due in April 2026:

– Paternity leave

Currently to take paternity leave a parent needs 26 weeks’ service. From April 2026 all parents will be eligible for paternity leave from day one of employment. 

Action required: your policy on Paternity leave should be updated accordingly

– Parental leave

Currently to take (unpaid) parental leave a parent needs one year of service. From April 2026 all parents will be eligible for unpaid parental leave from day one of employment. 

Action required: your policy on Parental leave should be updated accordingly 

– Statutory sick pay (SSP)

Currently SSP is paid from day 4 of sickness absence however from April 2026 SSP will become payable from day 1 of absence and the lower earnings limit will be removed so that all eligible employees regardless of earnings will be entitled to SSP. Those earning less than the lower earnings limit (currently £125 per week) will become entitled to SSP at a rate of 80% of weekly earnings.

Action required: your Absence policy should be updated accordingly 

– Sexual harassment to become a whistleblowing disclosure

Workers will be ‘protected’ from detriment and dismissal if they make a whistleblowing disclosure that sexual harassment is occuring or has occurred.

Recommendation: Ensure that your Whistleblowing policy includes allegations of sexual harassment as qualifying disclosures and cross-reference this to the harassment policy. Ensure all grievances are taken seriously and are investigated internally.

If you have questions or would like us to update your policies, please get in touch via help@yourhrpartner.co.uk.

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This post was written by SKHR