Clocking In To New Rights

Your New Rights As An Employee

From sick pay on day one to new protections against unfair dismissal, the biggest shake-up of workers’ rights in a generation is on its way. The new Employment Rights Bill promises to make work fairer and more secure — but what do these changes actually mean for you, and how different are they from the rules we’ve lived with until now?

Q: What is happening to Statutory Sick Pay (SSP)?

Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) is the minimum amount employers must pay you if you’re off work ill. Statutory Sick Pay has been around since 1983 — but the new reforms mark one of the biggest changes to it in over 40 years.”

Q: What are the changes taking place?

Before the new law:

• Paid only after 3 waiting days

• Lower earners often excluded

Now:

• Paid from day one

• Eligibility expanded

It removes the financial penalty for short-term illness. It is worth £116.75 per week (current standard rate). It is paid by your employer and can be paid for up to 28 week. The employer has to bear the cost of the benefit.

1.2 million workers, who were previously not entitled to statutory sick pay because they earned below the £125- Lower earnings limit. a-week threshold, will become eligible. This move is likely to be of benefit especially to women, who are overrepresented in lower-paid jobs and part-time work, as well as disabled employees and younger and older workers.

Q: What is Parental Leave?

It’s a job-protected break from work to care for your child, separate from maternity or paternity leave.

If your partner is expecting a baby or you're about to become a father, you're entitled to choose between taking one or two weeks' paternity leave. You must take it all in one go, and it can't start until the baby's been born.

Q: Who is eligible?

To qualify, you must use the time off to look after the new baby, and you must be one of the following:

• the child's father

• the husband or partner of the mother – this includes same-sex partners

• the child's adopter

• the intended parent (if you're having a baby through a surrogate).

Q: What changes do the new law bring in?

Before:

• Required ~26 weeks service

Now:

From 6 April 2026, paternity leave became a ‘day one’ right for employees, with the previous qualifying period removed. The rule that meant you lost your entitlement to paternity leave if you took shared parental leave has also been scrapped.

Millions of workers who were previously denied time off for the birth of their child will become eligible for new day one rights to parental leave from April.

You'll receive either £194.32 a week, or 90% of your average earnings – whichever is lower.

Q: What is Maternity Leave

Statutory maternity leave is the time you take off from your job to have a baby.

If you're employed, you're entitled to 52 weeks' maternity leave, split into 26 weeks of ordinary maternity leave, and 26 weeks of additional maternity leave.

If you're eligible, you'll be entitled to statutory maternity pay from your employer. This is paid for up to 39 weeks.

If you return to work during or at the end of ordinary maternity leave, you're entitled to return to your old job.

If you take the additional maternity leave, you may return to your old job, or you might be offered appropriate similar employment.

To be eligible for statutory maternity leave and pay, you must be classed as an employee, rather than a 'worker'.

The amount of statutory maternity pay you'll receive varies over the course of the 39 weeks.

• For the first six weeks, you're paid 90% of your average weekly wages

• For the following 33 weeks you'll get either 90% of your average weekly earnings, or £194.32 a week (for 2026-27) – whichever is lower.

To receive statutory maternity pay, you must:

• have worked for your employer for at least 26 weeks

• Earn at least £129 per week,

Q: What Are The Rules Around Unfair Dismissal?

Before the new laws you were not protected by the unfair dismissal laws until you had 2 years’ service required.

After the introduction of the laws, you get protection from your first day of employment.

Q: What are the changes to Zero-hours Contracts

The Employment Rights Act 2025 will not ban zero-hours contracts, but it introduces major reforms to tackle what the Government calls "exploitative" practices.

These changes are designed to give workers on zero-hours and low-hours contracts more predictability and security.

• A right to a stable contract: Workers will have the right to a contract that reflects the hours they regularly work, based on a 12-week reference period.

• Notice for shifts: You will be required to give workers reasonable notice of their shifts and working times.

• Compensation for cancelled shifts: Workers will be entitled to compensation if you cancel or cut short their shifts with limited notice.

• A right to be informed: You must provide workers with information about these new rights, both when they start and throughout their employment.

In essence the changes are:

Before:

• No guaranteed hours

Now:

• Right to predictable hours

• Compensation for cancellations

Q: What is the Fair Work Agency and how significant is it?

The Fair Work Agency is a new government body being created under the Employment Rights reforms to enforce workers’ rights more effectively.

Acting as a central workplace watchdog, it will have powers to inspect businesses, demand employer records, and take action to ensure staff are properly paid and treated according to the law. Previously, enforcement was fragmented across different organisations and often relied on workers bringing their own cases through tribunals, but the new agency shifts that burden towards the state by taking a more proactive role.

In practice, it is designed to make rights such as minimum wage, sick pay and holiday pay genuinely enforceable — not just theoretical — giving workers greater protection without requiring them to take on their employer alone.

Q: What are the changes to the Fire and Rehire regulations?

Fire and rehire involves dismissing employees to impose new contractual terms. The practice is currently lawful but closely scrutinised by employment tribunals.

Once the fire and rehire provisions are commenced, a dismissal carried out for the purpose of imposing a restricted variation will be treated as automatically unfair. This closes a controversial loophole in the law.

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