Here’s a quick, jargon-free breakdown of what you need to know:
What will be coming in April 2026:

• Doubling of the protective award for collective redundancies (good news: This only applies if you're making 20 or more redundancies)
• Day one’ paternity leave and unpaid parental leave (removing the current qualifying period)
• Enhanced Whistleblowing protections
• A Fair Work Agency will be established (Intended to support ACAS and an already overloaded tribunal system — especially once ‘day one’ rights come into force!)
• Statutory sick pay from day one of sickness

These changes will then be followed, in October 2026, by:

• The end of fire and rehire practices
• A tightening of the tipping laws that are already in place
• A requirement for employers to take ‘all reasonable steps’ to prevent sexual harassment of their employees (Yes — that beautifully vague language and at this stage we don’t know what ‘reasonable steps’ will involve!)

From 2027 major changes will include:

• Gender pay gap and menopause action plans will become mandatory for businesses of 250+ employees (but this will be good practice for smaller businesses)
• Enhanced protections for pregnant women and new mothers
• Introduction of Bereavement leave to extend the current parental bereavement leave framework
• Stronger protections against zero hour contract abuse
• Improved access to flexible working.

And the Godzilla of the changes…….

• Day-one protection from unfair dismissal

What should you do now?
Don’t panic! Despite the media headlines, there's no need to worry — there is plenty of time to get things in order and understand what the changes will mean to your business.

Got a specific concern or question, or just want to talk through the changes in more detail? Come and visit us on stand B951.