The April 2026 employment law changes every shift-working business needs to be on top of – and how Planday can help.

The Employment Rights Act 2025 has landed – and for any shift-working business, it’s a generational workplace legislation shift. At the start of April, several changes came into effect, and even more are on the way across 2026 and 2027.

Finding out “what’s changing” is easy; understanding what those changes mean for your business isn’t. So we’re breaking down what each change means for the people behind each shift, those who manage schedules and everyone who keeps the business running. 

Here’s what you should be doing right now (and how Planday can help).

What actually changed in April 2026?

Statutory sick pay

From 6 April, 2026, every team member automatically qualifies for statutory sick pay, from the first day they’re ill. And that’s regardless of how much they earn or how long they’ve worked for you.

Statutory sick pay didn’t previously kick in until the fourth day of absence, and lower earners (anyone making under £123 a week) didn’t qualify for it at all. Now that means a big part of the UK’s workforce who are on zero-hour contracts or casual workers now qualify for SSP.

The new rate is whichever's lower: 80% of normal weekly earnings or £123.35 a week.

The practical impact? Your payroll system needs to correctly apply SSP from the first day of absence – and your records need to prove you’ve done it. 

What you have to do: Update your payroll settings now to remove the three-day wait and the lower earnings threshold. Planday's time and attendance records log absence accurately from day one, so you’ll always have the records to back it up. 

Paternity and paternal leave rights

Paternity leave is a day-one right, too. Team members don’t have to have worked for you for 26 weeks to qualify now – they can take paternity leave from their first day of employment. This applies to unpaid parental leave, too.

And there’s also a new, Bereaved Partner’s Paternity Leave right. This means team members can take time off if their child’s mother or primary adopter passes away.

What you have to do: Amend your contracts and handbooks before any new starters join – these rights apply from day one, so the paperwork needs to be right before they walk through the door. Planday can help you make sure your team has access to all the documents they need.

Holiday pay records

This one’s vital. From 6 April, 2026, you need to keep records that show you’ve complied with holiday entitlement rules. That means you need to document:

• How much annual leave team members have accrued.

• Leave taken throughout the year.

• Holiday carry over.

• Pay in lieu of unused holiday on dismissal.

You have to store records for six years from the date they were made. You can choose the format you use, as long as they’re detailed enough to withstand scrutiny. Failing to keep accurate records is now a criminal offence, and carries potentially unlimited fines.

And this matters, because the Fair Working Agency (FWA) has the power to inspect your records, without warning.

What you have to do: Start tracking leave accrued and taken, carry-over and dismissal payments in one, auditable system – and make sure you can pull six years of records at short notice. Planday keeps everything in one place, so your records are ready long before anyone comes asking.

The Fair Work Agency

The Fair Work Agency becomes operational on 7 April. Among other things, it’s job is to oversee enforcement of National Minimum Wage, holiday pay and SSP under a single body. 

The FWA can:

• Inspect your premises and records without notice.

• Issue civil penalties for non-compliance.

• Initiates tribunals on behalf of workers (even without a worker personally making a claim).

•  Recover enforcement costs.

The big change is that this enforcement is no longer reactive, driven by claims. The FWA signals a shift towards active, unannounced audits. Your biggest risk areas are holiday pay errors for casual workers, holiday pay that's undocumented and calculations that don't account for all working time.

What you have to do: Audit your payroll, working time and holiday pay records. If you couldn't hand them to an inspector today, that's the gap to close. Planday brings scheduling, attendance and pay data together, so the evidence is always there when you need it.

Whistleblowing 

Reporting sexual harassment is now a protected disclosure under whistleblowing law. Team members who report it are protected from professional harm and unfair dismissal.

Hospitality and residential healthcare are considered vulnerable sectors for non-compliance, because they carry high risk. In hospitality, you have customer-facing roles, late nights and alcohol. In residential healthcare, you have power dynamics at play – between staff, residents and families. There’s also the pressures of lone working, or night working. 

What you have to do: Update your whistleblowing policy to cover sexual harassment disclosures, and brief every manager on the new protections. If a team member raises this and faces any blowback, the legal and reputational risk falls on you.

Collective redundancy

If you don’t properly consult team members during collective redundancy, the maximum protective award has doubled – from 90 days' pay to 180 days' pay per employee.

For any business managing workforce restructures, this significantly raises the financial stakes of getting the consultation process wrong.

What you have to do: If a restructure’s on the horizon, get legal advice before you begin; the cost of skipping or rushing the consultation process has doubled.

National Living Wage

UKHospitality believes the wage increases add £1.4 billion to the sector’s costs.

But the pay rise itself isn't the only risk; it's the knock-on effects. If your junior staff go up, does the pay structure above them still make sense? Does it affect your gender pay gap? Check your whole pay structure, not just the bottom.

What you have to do: Immediately update your payroll rates and audit your full pay structure for knock-on gaps. Planday's working time tracking helps you monitor hours accurately so small oversights don't quietly become costly penalties.

What's coming in 2026 and 2027

The April changes are the first wave. Here's what's on the horizon:

• Zero-hours contract reforms (late 2026/2027): workers who work regular hours will have the right to a guaranteed hours contract, plus compensation for shifts cancelled without reasonable notice. Agency workers are included.

• Unfair dismissal qualifying period (January 2027): expected to drop from two years to six months.

• Strengthened duty to prevent sexual harassment (October 2026): the standard moves to "all reasonable steps", and employer liability extends to third-party harassment by customers.

• Tipping policy consultation (October 2026): mandatory workforce consultation on tipping policies, reviewed every three years.

How Planday can help

Your compliance is your responsibility. No software changes that. But the right tools make staying compliant easier, less manual and your records more reliable.

With Planday, you can:

• Track holiday accrual, leave taken and carry-over in one place, giving you the audit-ready records the FWA requires.

• Record working time accurately across your whole workforce, including zero-hours and casual workers.

• Monitor wage compliance as rate changes happen, and flag risks before they become penalties.

• Keep shift scheduling, attendance and pay data connected ,so you're not reconciling spreadsheets when an inspector arrives.

Planday gives you the tools to manage it without drowning in admin.

Planday makes staying compliance-ready ahead of every next shift easier. Book a demo today to find out how.

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