The Weekly Round Up: Employment Rights, Pre-Settled Status Removals, LGBT Veterans Action, the Home Office eVisa Policy and Free School Meals
13 April 2026
In the News
Employment Rights Act measures take effect
On 6 and 7 April 2026, a selection of measures under the Employment Rights Act 2025 (“the Act”) took effect.
The measures include the removal of the Lower Earnings Limit for statutory sick pay (“SSP”), making over 1.2 million workers eligible. They will also remove the waiting period for SSP, meaning workers will be paid from the first day of becoming ill, rather than from day four. In addition, employees will now be entitled to paternity leave and unpaid parental leave from the first day in their job, as opposed to after 26 weeks (paternity leave) or a year (unpaid parental leave).
Moreover, the new measures have added sexual harassment to the list of wrongdoings that may count as the basis for a “qualified disclosure” under s.43B of the Act, meaning that workers who make such disclosures, and do so in the reasonable belief that their report is in the public interest, will be afforded the whistleblowing protections against adverse treatment and unfair dismissal within the Act. Alongside this, the measures include the establishment of the Fair Work Agency, an executive agency of the Department of Trade, which will have the power to inspect workplaces, bring civil proceedings and enforce penalties if they find breaches of employment law.
These measures follow the Act’s first tranche of reforms, relating to trade unions and industrial action, which came into effect on 18 February 2026.
Continue reading →
Recent comments