The UK Government’s Plan to Make Work Pay and the Employment Rights Act 2025 introduce the most significant changes to UK employment law in a generation. The reforms are being phased in across 2026 and 2027 so that employers, businesses and workers have time to plan and prepare. The Department for Business and Trade published an updated implementation timeline on 15 April 2026, and a number of headline changes have already taken effect.

Below is a plain-English guide to the key 2026 changes for UK employers and employees, with a forward look at what is still coming this year and into 2027.

Statutory Sick Pay: day-one entitlement for every employee

From 6 April 2026, Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) is payable from the first day of sickness absence to every employee, regardless of their earnings or contracted hours.

  • The Lower Earnings Limit (LEL), which previously excluded the lowest-paid workers from SSP entitlement, has been abolished.
  • The three-day waiting period that delayed SSP for the first three days of any sick spell has been removed.

In practice this means SSP is now a true day-one right. Employers should update sickness absence policies, payroll set-up and manager training to reflect the new triggers.

Paternity Leave and Unpaid Parental Leave become day-one rights

Until April 2026, employees needed 26 weeks of continuous service to take Paternity Leave and 12 months of service to qualify for Unpaid Parental Leave.

From 6 April 2026, both become day-one rights. A new starter can take Paternity Leave in their first week of employment if the other qualifying conditions are met. The same day-one status now applies to Unpaid Parental Leave.

Employees who were newly eligible were able to give notice to their employer from 18 February 2026 in advance of the rights coming into force in April.

A separate, non-Plan to Make Work Pay measure that also took effect on 6 April 2026 is Bereaved Partners’ Paternity Leave — bereaved fathers and partners can now take up to 52 weeks of paternity leave if the mother or primary adopter dies within the first year of the child’s life.

Collective redundancy: protective award doubled

Where an employer fails to carry out proper collective consultation, the maximum protective award payable to affected employees has been doubled from 90 days’ pay per employee to 180 days’ pay per employee (effective 6 April 2026).

Combined with the increased enforcement appetite (see Fair Work Agency below), this materially raises the financial risk of getting collective consultation wrong on any redundancy programme affecting 20 or more employees at one establishment.

The Fair Work Agency: a new national enforcement body

From 7 April 2026, the Fair Work Agency (FWA) comes into existence as a single national enforcement body. It consolidates three previously separate functions under one roof:

  • HMRC’s National Minimum Wage enforcement team
  • The Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate
  • The Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority

Bringing these together creates one regulator with broad powers across pay, agency conduct, and labour market abuses. Employers in sectors with historic compliance concerns — care, hospitality, construction, agriculture, low-pay services — should expect more visible and coordinated enforcement.

Trade union recognition: a lower threshold

The threshold for trade unions to achieve statutory recognition has been substantially reduced from April 2026. Unions no longer need to demonstrate they are likely to win a recognition ballot before the recognition process can begin.

Alongside this, the great majority of the Trade Union Act 2016 was repealed on 18 February 2026, simplifying industrial action ballot notices, removing the 10-year ballot requirement for political funds, and introducing protections against dismissal for taking industrial action.

What else is changing in 2026

Per the latest timetable, further reforms are scheduled to take effect later this year:

  • August 2026: electronic and workplace balloting for statutory trade union ballots.
  • October 2026: duty to inform workers of their right to join a trade union, strengthened union rights of access, new protections for trade union representatives, the obligation on employers to take “all reasonable steps” to prevent sexual harassment, the obligation not to permit third-party harassment, the Fair Pay Agreement Adult Social Care Negotiating Body in England, reinstatement of the two-tier procurement code for outsourced workers, and tightened tipping law.
  • No earlier than October 2026: changes to employment tribunal time limits.
  • December 2026: Seafarer Protection Regulations.

A look ahead to 2027

Two of the most consequential reforms for day-to-day employment relationships sit in 2027:

  • January 2027: the unfair dismissal qualifying period drops from two years to six months, and the cap on compensatory awards is removed. Fire and rehire protections also take effect.
  • During 2027: mandatory action plans on gender equality and the menopause, enhanced dismissal protections for pregnant women and new mothers, regulation of umbrella companies, the right to guaranteed hours, the right to reasonable notice of shifts, collective consultation threshold changes, flexible working enhancements, bereavement leave (including pregnancy loss), and extended blacklisting protections.

What this means for employers

The 2026 changes shift several long-standing risk and cost calculations:

  • Day-one rights (SSP, Paternity, Parental Leave) remove the buffer that long service requirements provided.
  • Doubled protective awards dramatically increase the price of getting redundancy consultation wrong.
  • The Fair Work Agency creates one well-resourced regulator across pay, agency conduct, and labour exploitation.
  • Easier union recognition changes the calculus around workforce engagement, particularly in sectors where unions have historically struggled to organise.

Now is the right time to refresh contract templates, sickness absence and family leave policies, redundancy consultation playbooks, manager training, and pay-related compliance programmes.

What this means for employees

The reforms strengthen day-one rights, expand access to family leave, and lower the financial risk of speaking up or organising. If you are unsure how a specific change affects your contract or your dispute, our Employment Law team can advise you on your rights and the appropriate next steps. See our Employment Law services for details.

Authoritative source

This guide summarises the 15 April 2026 timeline update from the UK Government. The full policy paper is at GOV.UK — Plan to Make Work Pay and Employment Rights Act: timeline update.

Timings are subject to further consultation and may change without notice — always check GOV.UK for the latest position before relying on a date.