Insights

As part of the staggered implementation of the Employment Act 2025, a number of employment law changes will come into force on 6 April.

Below is a summary of some of the key changes employers should be aware of:

Statutory Sick Pay

The current 3 day waiting period for Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) has been removed, and SSP will now be payable from day one of sickness absence. The lower earnings limit for SSP eligibility has also been removed but, to avoid the rate of SSP being more than the actual earnings of eligible employees, the weekly rate of SSP will, from that date, be the lower of the prescribed weekly rate and 80% of the employee’s normal weekly earnings.

Annual leave and holiday pay records

There are new obligations on employers to keep certain records relating to compliance with annual leave and pay for annual leave.

Parental leave

From 6 April there will be a day-one right to parental leave, a day-one right to paternity leave, and the ability to take paternity leave after a period of shared parental leave for qualifying children. This only affects leave, not pay.

Sexual harassment

Sexual harassment is now explicitly a specified basis for making a protected disclosure.

Collective redundancies

The cap on the protective award for a failure to adequately inform and consult in respect collective redundancies increases from 90 days to 180 days.

Statutory trade union recognition

In respect of statutory trade union recognition, the “10 per cent test” is replaced with the “required percentage test”, removing the requirement at for a union to demonstrate that there is likely to be majority support for trade union recognition and removing the 40% support threshold from recognition ballots

For more information, please contact a member of our Employment Team who will be happy to assist.