Employment law insights
Our latest employment law insights.
Employment law insights -
April 2026
New tax year – new payment and compensation rates
Tribunal Awards. From 6 April 2026, compensation caps will be increased as follows: A week’s pay*. Rate to 5 April 2026 - £719. Rate from 6 April 2026 - £751.
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Collective Consultation - Protective Award – Doubled
When an employer intends to make 20 or more employees redundant within a 90‑day period at one establishment, it is legally required to consult with employee representatives for at least 30 days (or 45 days if at least 100 redundancies are proposed) before serving notice.
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Changes to Statutory Sick Pay
From 6 April 2026, Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) will be payable from the first day of illness, rather than from the fourth day. The lower earnings limit (i.e. the minimum average weekly earnings an employee must receive to qualify for SSP, currently £125 per week) will also be removed.
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Family friendly rights reforms in place from April 2026
Paternity leave - day one right. Currently, employees need to be employed for 26 weeks' continuous service to qualify for statutory paternity leave. From 6 April 2026, that requirement disappears, and paternity leave becomes a day 1 right. This aligns with rights to maternity leave.
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Extended leave for bereaved partners
From 6 April 2026, the government is introducing new legislation that provides a right to Bereaved Partners Paternity Leave (BPPL). Where the mother or primary carer of the employee’s child has passed away BPPL provides employees with the right to take a single period of unpaid leave during the first 52 weeks after the date of birth or adoption.
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Fair Work Agency
The Fair Work Agency will be established from 7 April 2026. The purpose of this agency is to consolidate enforcement functions currently spread across multiple bodies (for example the Employment Agency Inspectorate, HMRC National Minimum Wage enforcement).
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e-Visas: Checking right to work in the UK using digital visas
The UK has been moving to a system of digital visas for some time now which has resulted in the gradual phasing out of hard copy visas such as stamps/stickers in passports and Biometric Residence Permits.
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Employment law insights - January 2026
The unfair dismissal revolution
From 1 January 2027, unfair dismissal law will be very different. Not only will the qualification period be reduced from two years to six months, but the cap on compensation, which has always existed, will be removed completely.
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ACAS Early Conciliation period doubled
A necessary logistic change is likely to lead to far-reaching consequences. Before bringing an Employment Tribunal claim, a prospective claimant must contact ACAS to start a period of ‘Early Conciliation’. The deadline for the individual to start this process is typically 3 months after the date of the act to which the potential claim relates.
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Is being non-binary a protected characteristic?
It is unlawful for an employer to discriminate against a worker on the basis of their sex or gender reassignment, but is this enough to give protection to an employee who feels that they have been discriminated against on the basis of their “non-binary” gender identity?
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The bathroom wars
The spate of cases regarding the use of single-sex toilets and changing rooms by trans employees has continued unabated. Although the recent judgments lack consistency, they tend to be moving in one direction: that employers should permit employees to use only the single-sex facilities of their biological sex and not their gender identification.
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Is believing that unreformed Islam is ‘problematic’ a protected belief?
Patrick Lee was an Actuary regulated by the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (IFoA), who posted a large number of tweets stating that traditional Islamic beliefs were not compatible with western values. After an investigation and disciplinary hearing, the IFoA banned him from the profession for two years and fined him.
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Future loss should not necessarily end on a claimant’s 65th birthday
J Davidson was a coach driver for National Express Ltd who was dismissed for failing an alcohol test. The tribunal found that the dismissal was unfair because the appeal process was flawed, but applied a 75% reduction to the award to reflect the chance a fair appeal would have resulted in dismissal.