Employer obligations in the UK: what you must do
Your duties when you hire someone, how employment status affects their rights, and which 2026-27 reforms are already law.
If your pay is short, your rota is unsafe, or you are being pushed out, you have rights at work. Start today: save your rota, payslips and messages, then write down the hours you actually worked. Your employer must pay the legal minimum, give holiday and rest, and keep work safe. The first step is to check what kind of worker you are and which deadline is already ticking. The rules differ in Northern Ireland.
If you are doing this after a long shift, take one small step: photograph your rota and payslip, then note the hours you actually worked. Keep copies somewhere your employer cannot access. The deadline may already be running.
- £12.71
- hourly minimum, 21+, from 1 Apr 2026
- 5.6 wks
- minimum annual paid leave for most workers
- £5m
- minimum employers’ liability cover where required
- 2 years
- ordinary unfair-dismissal threshold in GB today
Start with the relationship, not the job title
Calling someone a freelancer does not make them self-employed. We start with how the work actually happens. Must they do it personally? How much control do you exercise? Are you buying a service from a business of their own? A casual worker might be free to turn down the next shift but still have rights while working this one. Tax status and employment-rights status are separate questions. GOV.UK’s worker guidance sets out the distinction.
Employee
- Works under a contract of employment; has worker rights too.
- Can qualify for statutory notice, redundancy pay and ordinary unfair-dismissal protection.
- Has statutory family-leave and flexible-working-request rights, subject to each scheme’s conditions.
Worker
- Personally does work for a business that is not simply their client.
- Gets minimum wage, holiday, rest, payslips and protection from discrimination and whistleblowing.
- May qualify for statutory payments depending on employed-earner and other rules, but not ordinarily for unfair-dismissal or redundancy rights.
Genuinely self-employed contractors do not acquire paid holiday or the minimum wage merely because you buy their services; your safety duties to people affected by your work do not disappear. If you use an agency, identify which obligations sit with the agency and which with the hirer. For off-payroll tax questions, see our IR35 guide.
Before the first payday
Check a new hire’s right to work before employment begins. Apply the same check to British and Irish citizens. Use their documents or a registered right-to-work digital verification provider rather than asking them for a share code. A repeat breach can attract a civil penalty of up to £60,000 per illegal worker; the first-breach maximum is £45,000. Keep the evidence, and repeat a check when time-limited permission requires it.
Since 1 October 2026, the revised statutory Code on avoiding discrimination during right-to-work checks has replaced the version effective from 6 April 2022. Under SI 2026/700, regulation 2, employers using a digital verification provider must confirm that it is registered under the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 framework. Where the provider conducts facial recognition, securely retain both the facial images and the provider’s confirmation for at least two years after employment ends. These are conditions of the statutory excuse, the protection against a civil penalty. The instrument also inserts article 5B, prescribing conditions for avoiding penalties within the extended liability framework for contracting chains and online matching services. Arranging work through a subcontractor or platform does not remove right-to-work responsibilities.
In Great Britain the principal written statement is due to both employees and workers on their first day. It records names, work, start date, pay, hours, location, holiday, probation and training. Give information on sick pay, other paid leave and notice at the same time. The wider statement covers pensions, collective agreements and procedures and follows within two months. A written statement is not itself the employment contract.
Provide an itemised payslip on or before each payday. Include hours if pay varies with time worked.
- Set up payroll. Register with HMRC before the first payday; report payments under Real Time Information on or before paying staff.
- Assess pension duties. You must provide a scheme and assess eligible staff. Enrol eligible workers and tell them what will be paid; check eligibility again when circumstances change.
- Insure and make work safe. Get employers’ liability insurance when required, assess risks and explain safe methods before someone starts the job.
Pay, pensions and tax
From 1 April 2026 the hourly minimum is £12.71 for workers aged 21 or over, £10.85 at 18-20, and £8 for under-18s above school-leaving age. The £8 apprentice rate applies under 19, or at 19 or over in the first apprenticeship year; after that, the age rate applies. The rates apply to workers, including employees. If your business controls qualifying tips, allocate them fairly without retaining them and have a written tipping policy.
On 3 September 2026, the government named around 660 employers for minimum-wage underpayment, with £4 million returned to workers and £7 million in penalties. This was the first naming round since the Fair Work Agency was established; HMRC enforces the minimum wage on its behalf. It is an enforcement update, not a change to the rates or a new entitlement.
For 2026/27, the standard employer Class 1 National Insurance rate is 15% above the £5,000 annual secondary threshold (£96 weekly). Employment Allowance can offset up to £10,500 of eligible employers’ liabilities. Specific NI categories have 0% employer contributions up to £50,270 for staff under 21, eligible apprentices under 25 and qualifying veterans during their first year of civilian employment. See the employer NI guide.
In Great Britain, automatically enrol eligible workers aged 22 to State Pension age who earn at least £10,000 a year and ordinarily work in the UK. The 2026/27 qualifying-earnings band is £6,240-£50,270. A qualifying defined-contribution scheme generally needs 8% in total on those earnings, including at least 3% from the employer. Lower earners may still have a right to join or opt in. See our pension guide.
Example: a 25-year-old shop assistant, 37.5 hours a week
At £12.71 an hour, gross weekly pay rounds to £476.63. Assuming that rounded weekly amount is paid for 52 weeks, annual pay is £24,784.76. Standard employer NI before any Employment Allowance is (£24,784.76 − £5,000) × 15% = £2,967.71. On a qualifying-earnings pension, the minimum employer contribution is (£24,784.76 − £6,240) × 3% = £556.34. The 8% total is £1,483.58. A regular five-day week brings 28 days’ statutory holiday for a full leave year.
Hours, holiday and rest
Most workers, including agency staff, receive 5.6 weeks’ paid annual leave. That is 28 days for a regular five-day week and 16.8 days for a regular three-day week; the statutory entitlement is capped at 28 days. Bank holidays may form part of the allowance.
In Great Britain, for leave years beginning on or after 1 April 2024, genuinely irregular-hours and part-year workers generally accrue statutory leave at 12.07% of hours worked in each pay period. Employers can use separately identified rolled-up holiday pay for those groups. Do not apply that accrual method automatically to every agency or zero-hours worker. Check their actual contractual pattern.
Since 6 April 2026, employers in Great Britain must keep records adequate to show compliance with statutory annual-leave and holiday-pay duties, including the irregular-hours and rolled-up holiday-pay rules. Keep them for six years from the date they are made, in any reasonably suitable format. Section 35 of the Employment Rights Act 2025 added regulation 16B to the Working Time Regulations; it commenced under SI 2026/323, regulation 3(1), read with regulation 3(8). Failure to comply is a criminal offence. The Secretary of State can bring prosecutions in England and Wales. This duty does not extend to Northern Ireland. Acas explains the holiday records employers must keep.
The usual adult limit is 48 hours a week averaged over 17 weeks, with sector exceptions. An adult may agree a written opt-out and withdraw it on at least seven days’ notice, unless a longer notice period of up to three months was agreed. Young workers normally face eight hours a day and 40 a week with no opt-out. Adult workers usually get a 20-minute uninterrupted break when working more than six hours, 11 consecutive hours’ daily rest, and 24 hours each week or 48 hours each fortnight. Different rules and compensatory rest can apply in certain work.
Sick pay and family leave
From 6 April 2026, Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) has no lower earnings limit or three waiting days. Eligible employees receive it from their first full day of sickness absence for up to 28 weeks, at the lower of £123.25 weekly or 80% of average weekly earnings in 2026/27. Someone averaging £150 weekly receives £120; someone averaging £400 receives £123.25. At the standard rate with five qualifying days, one day is £24.65. Some people labelled workers can qualify if treated as employed earners for SSP; check status rather than ruling them out by label. Read the SSP guide.
Statutory Maternity Leave can last 52 weeks; Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) pays 90% of average weekly earnings for six weeks, then the lower of that 90% and £194.32 weekly for up to 33 more. Pay has separate service and earnings tests. The £194.32-or-90% rate also applies to statutory paternity, shared parental, parental bereavement and neonatal care pay; adoption pay starts with six weeks at 90%. Neonatal care leave is a day-one right in Great Britain, but its pay has separate qualifying conditions.
Example: maternity pay on £300 average weekly earnings
If eligible for SMP, the first six weeks pay £270 a week (£1,620); the next 33 pay £194.32 (£6,412.56). Total statutory pay is £8,032.56 over 39 weeks. For 2026/27, eligible employers generally recover 92% from HMRC, or 109% if their previous tax year’s combined Class 1 NICs were £45,000 or less.
In Great Britain, paternity leave and unpaid parental leave have been available from day one since 6 April 2026, although statutory paternity pay still has a 26-week service test. Unpaid parental leave is normally up to 18 weeks per child, at most four weeks in a year. Eligible employees also have a day-one right to one unpaid week of carer’s leave a year and reasonable unpaid emergency time off for dependants. Bereaved partners may qualify for up to 52 weeks’ paternity leave when the mother or primary adopter dies within the child’s first year.
Equality, harassment and flexible working
In Great Britain, the Equality Act 2010 protects against discrimination because of nine protected characteristics, requires reasonable adjustments for disabled people and provides equal-pay protections. Employees can make two statutory flexible-working requests in 12 months from day one. Consult before refusing, rely only on a permitted business ground, and decide within two months, including any appeal, unless an extension is agreed. It is a right to request, not an automatic right to the hours asked for.
Employers already have a duty to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of their employees. Assess foreseeable risks from customers and colleagues, train staff, and address complaints.
If harassment or discrimination is part of it, keep a dated record of what happened and who saw it. Contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service in Great Britain; in Northern Ireland, contact the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland. A tribunal deadline can run while an internal complaint is investigated.
Notice, redundancy and dismissal
In Great Britain an employee dismissed after at least a month’s service gets at least one week’s statutory notice; from two completed years it is one week per year, up to 12 weeks. A contract can promise more.
Statutory redundancy pay normally requires two years as an employee. For each qualifying year, allow half a week’s pay under 22, one week at 22-40, and one and a half weeks at 41 or older. Count at most 20 years and cap a week’s pay at £751 from 6 April 2026; the maximum statutory payment is £22,530. Separate consultation duties apply to collective redundancies. The maximum protective award for failure to consult doubled to 180 days’ pay on 6 April 2026.
Example: redundancy at 45 after 12 complete years
Suppose eight qualifying years fell at ages 40 and under, and four at 41 or over. On actual weekly pay of £800, use the £751 statutory cap: (8 × 1 × £751) + (4 × 1.5 × £751) = £10,514. Check the precise years and any contractual enhancement for the individual.
Ordinary unfair dismissal generally needs two years’ service in Great Britain for dismissals before 1 January 2027. Some automatically unfair dismissals and discrimination claims do not require that service. The current ordinary unfair-dismissal compensatory award is generally capped at the lower of 52 weeks’ gross pay and £123,543; exceptions apply. Assess the reason, follow a fair procedure and keep a record even during probation.
For claims whose time limit starts on or after 1 October 2026, most Great Britain tribunal claims move to six months less one day. This is not a blanket six months from any earlier incident. Claims with an earlier start retain their former limit; some claims have different limits and early conciliation can pause the clock. Acas warns that a grievance does not stop time running. In Scotland the extension for breach-of-employment-contract claims is scheduled for 9 November 2026. See Acas’s time-limit guidance.
If you are short-paid, keep the rota, payslips, bank entries and messages, then make a dated note of the hours and what is missing. Use HMRC’s minimum-wage complaint route for underpayment. If you may claim at tribunal, notify Acas for early conciliation before the deadline; a grievance does not stop it. Ask your union for help: USDAW in retail, Unite in hospitality and food, UNISON in care and health, GMB in warehousing and logistics, or IWGB for many delivery workers. Citizens Advice and a local law centre can help you understand your options.
Agency, part-time, fixed-term and young staff
Part-time staff have the same basic hourly protections and statutory working-time limit as full-time staff; holiday days scale with the days they work. Fixed-term employees generally must not be treated less favourably than comparable permanent employees without objective justification. Successive fixed-term contracts normally become permanent after four years unless continued fixed-term status is objectively justified. A fixed-term contract expiring without renewal can itself be a dismissal.
Agency workers have worker rights and access to shared facilities from day one, plus information about vacancies. After 12 qualifying weeks in the same role, equal-treatment rules cover pay, working time, rest and annual leave; they do not promise every benefit enjoyed by a permanent colleague. Zero-hours exclusivity clauses are unenforceable; the ban also extends to eligible low-income workers at or below the lower earnings limit, £129 a week in 2026/27. A guaranteed-hours right and shift-notice protections are planned for 2027, with dates still to be settled.
Young workers have tighter hours and rest rules; the under-18 minimum wage does not excuse unsafe work. A family member who is genuinely an employee or worker retains the rights attached to that status. Genuine volunteers are not owed wages or holiday simply for volunteering, but a reward beyond expenses or a promise of paid work may change their status. Insurance has a separate exception for an employer whose only employee is a family member; other obligations do not vanish.
Health, safety and insurance
Assess risks to employees and others affected by your work, put controls in place, provide information and training, and consult staff about safety. Record significant findings of a risk assessment when you have five or more employees. Every employer needs a health-and-safety policy; with five or more employees it must be written down. Do not ignore a contractor working on site because they are self-employed.
For workplace safety concerns, tell a manager in writing if it is safe to do so and report serious workplace safety concerns to the Health and Safety Executive or your local authority, depending on the workplace. If you suspect labour exploitation, use the Fair Work Agency’s reporting routes: its online form, freephone 0800 432 0804, or [email protected]. The phone line opens Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm, except public holidays, with voicemail outside those hours and interpreters available. If anyone is in immediate danger, call 999. Do not put yourself at risk to collect evidence.
The FWA lists “Spot the signs of labour exploitation” as guidance dated 15 October 2026. This is published guidance, not a change in the law; the reporting routes already existed.
Employers’ liability insurance normally requires at least £5 million cover from an authorised insurer as soon as you become an employer. Limited exemptions include employing only a family member. The fine for being uninsured can reach £2,500 a day, plus up to £1,000 for failing to display or produce the certificate. See our health and safety guide.
Scotland and Northern Ireland: check the jurisdiction
Scotland follows most Great Britain employment rules here, including the 2025 Act’s phased changes; apply Scottish income-tax rates in payroll. Its six-month limit for breach-of-contract tribunal claims begins on 9 November, not 1 October 2026. Public holidays vary but the 5.6-week statutory minimum does not.
Northern Ireland is not covered by most of the Great Britain reforms discussed above. Employees there are entitled to written particulars within two months of starting, rather than the Great Britain day-one entitlement for employees and workers. Ordinary unfair dismissal usually needs one year’s service and its tribunal claim normally needs to be made within three months; conciliation goes through the Labour Relations Agency. Northern Ireland has separate discrimination statutes, not the Equality Act 2010. From 6 April 2026, its 2026/27 cap on a week’s pay for redundancy and specified tribunal awards is £783, making the maximum statutory redundancy payment £23,490 (30 × £783). Its unfair-dismissal compensatory award limit is £123,785. Under the separate Northern Ireland up-rating order, the weekly SSP rate is £123.25 and the standard statutory maternity, paternity, adoption, shared parental and parental bereavement pay rate is £194.32 from 6 April 2026, matching the corresponding Great Britain rates. The April 2026 SSP change applies UK-wide. Check the Northern Ireland guide before using a Great Britain policy there.
What has changed and what comes next
- Already in force
SSP from the first full day, without a lower earnings limit; day-one paternity and unpaid parental leave in GB; 180-day maximum collective-consultation protective award; GB holiday-records duty with six-year retention. The Fair Work Agency was established on 7 April.
- In force today
Most GB tribunal claim deadlines extend to six months less one day if the time limit starts today or later; Scotland’s contract-claim exception starts 9 November. Revised right-to-work discrimination Code and digital-verification rules, including conditional facial-image retention, and article 5B conditions for contracting chains and online matching services are in force.
- Scheduled
SI 2026/1065 fixes commencement of the all-reasonable-steps sexual-harassment duty, third-party harassment liability and power to specify prevention steps; union access, remaining recognition and derecognition reforms, and representative time-off reforms including paid time off for qualifying equality representatives; and the seafarer framework. Industrial-action reforms are also scheduled for this date. Transitional rules apply to specified CAC cases and time-off complaints; operational seafarer declaration requirements need further regulations.
- Scheduled
Six-month ordinary unfair-dismissal service requirement for dismissals from this date; removal of the ordinary compensatory award cap; strengthened tipping law. The government also intends the union-rights statement duty to start on this date.
- Scheduled
Fire-and-rehire protections and mandatory gender-equality and menopause action plans for public authorities. Private and voluntary sector action plans are scheduled for April 2027.
Questions people ask
Do you need to provide a written contract on day one?
In Great Britain, employees and workers need a principal written statement on day one, with other particulars within two months. It is not the whole contract. Northern Ireland’s current employee-statement deadline is two months.
Does a zero-hours worker get paid holiday?
Yes, if they are legally a worker. Their 5.6-week entitlement may be calculated using the irregular-hours accrual method if their actual arrangement meets that definition. The zero-hours label alone does not decide it.
Can you dismiss someone during probation?
Yes, if you have a lawful reason, give the right notice and avoid discrimination or an automatically unfair reason. Follow a fair process. For GB dismissals from 1 January 2027, ordinary unfair-dismissal protection is scheduled to begin at six months’ service.
Must you give the same benefits to agency staff?
You do not have to match every benefit. Workers have core rights from the start and, after 12 qualifying weeks in the same role, equal treatment on specified terms including pay and paid holiday.
Do the new six-month tribunal limits revive old claims?
No. The longer period applies to most GB claims only where the time limit starts on or after 1 October 2026. Other claims have different deadlines; notify Acas in time and check Scottish contract claims separately.
Sources
- Employment Rights Act implementation timetable, GOV.UK
- Employment tribunal time limits, Acas
- Unfair dismissal reforms, Business.gov.uk
- Statutory Sick Pay reforms, Business.gov.uk
- Rates and thresholds for employers 2026/27, HMRC
- Minimum wage rates, GOV.UK
- GB employment limits 2026, legislation.gov.uk
- Automatic-enrolment thresholds 2026/27, DWP
- Written statement requirements, GOV.UK
- Holiday-pay reforms for irregular and part-year staff, GOV.UK
- Agency worker equal treatment, GOV.UK
- Employers’ liability insurance, GOV.UK
- Northern Ireland written statements, nidirect
- Northern Ireland unfair dismissal, nidirect
- Northern Ireland employment limits 2026, legislation.gov.uk
- Government response on union-rights statements, GOV.UK
- Government response on flexible-working reforms, GOV.UK
- Draft flexible-working Code consultation, Acas
- Draft disciplinary and grievance Code consultation, Acas
- Updated disciplinary and grievance Code timetable, Acas
- Minimum-wage enforcement announcement, 3 September 2026, GOV.UK
- Social Security Benefits Up-rating Order (Northern Ireland) 2026, legislation.gov.uk
- Low Pay Commission Report 2025, chapter 9, Low Pay Commission
- Employment tribunal backlog: urgent action needed, Work Rights Centre
- Employment Rights Act 2025, section 35: holiday records, legislation.gov.uk
- SI 2026/323, regulation 3(1), read with regulation 3(8): holiday-records commencement, legislation.gov.uk
- Keeping holiday records, Acas
- Employment Rights Act 2025, section 14: tipping policies, legislation.gov.uk
- Revised tipping Code of Practice consultation, GOV.UK
- Consultation on the revised tipping Code of Practice, page 17: commencement expectations, Department for Business and Trade
- Employment Rights Act 2025 (Commencement No. 6 and Transitional and Saving Provisions) Regulations 2026: 30 October commencement and transitional rules, legislation.gov.uk
- Employment Rights Act 2025, sections 20-22, 56, 59-60 and 64-65, and Schedules 5-6, legislation.gov.uk
- SI 2026/700, regulation 2: right-to-work verification, contracting chains and discrimination Code, legislation.gov.uk
- Right-to-work checks: Code of Practice on avoiding discrimination, effective 1 October 2026, Home Office
- How to report serious abuse or exploitation at work, Fair Work Agency
- Fair Work Agency: guidance listing for “Spot the signs of labour exploitation”, dated 15 October 2026, GOV.UK