Employment Rights – what’s changed in April?

April 23, 2026 11:08 am Published by

Statutory sick pay (SSP) payable from day one of sickness

From 6th April employees who are off sick no longer have to wait 3 days to receive statutory sick pay as this is payable from day one of absence. All employees are eligible for SSP regardless of their level of earnings. Those staff earning less than £123 a week will receive 80% of SSP.

Employees only receive SSP for the days they are contractually required to work. They need to report their absence by the end of their first day of sickness. However do note that new employees who have yet to start work will not qualify for SSP if they immediately go off sick.

Paternity leave and Parental leave become day one rights

From 6 April 2026 paternity leave and parental leave are day one rights. Staff do not need 6 months or a year’s service to be eligible to take either of these statutory types of leave.

Redundancies – collective consultation

Are you planning a large-scale restructure with proposed redundancies of more than 20 staff? if so you need to carry out collective consultation with affected staff for at least 90 days. The penalty for not consulting collectively with such a large number of proposed redundancies is now 180 days’ pay per employee.  


If you would like advice regarding the redundancy consultation process and relevant documentation for any number of staff do get in touch via help@yourhrpartner.co.uk

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This post was written by SKHR