Workplace wellness programmes: what rights apply?
A breathing app cannot fix an unsafe rota. Here is what your employer owes you, what sick pay actually covers, and how to challenge work that harms your health.
If a care home answers unsafe staffing with a mindfulness app, the staffing problem remains. Your employer can choose its wellbeing perks. It cannot choose whether to meet health and safety duties. Start with what is making you ill, not the benefits brochure.
- £123.25
- weekly SSP ceiling from 6 April 2026
- 80%
- of average earnings, capped at the weekly SSP ceiling
- Day one
- SSP starts on the first qualifying sick day
- 28 weeks
- maximum SSP entitlement, subject to eligibility
Wellness perks and legal rights
A wellness programme offers benefits such as fitness classes, counselling, an employee assistance programme, health checks or healthy food. There is no general statutory duty to provide it. Check your contract and collective agreement, though. An employer’s promise may give you additional rights.
Start with the cause of harm, any disability-related changes you need and whether your sick pay is right. See mental health and safety duties and occupational health referrals. There is no universal right to a referral, but medical advice can help identify suitable adjustments.
What your employer actually owes you
The main duties below describe Great Britain. Northern Ireland has separate equality and safety laws, covered later in this guide.
| Duty | What the employer must do | What is not enough |
|---|---|---|
| Protect health and safety | Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, section 2: protect employees so far as reasonably practicable. Section 3 also protects non-employees affected by the business. | Yoga while unsafe lifting continues |
| Assess and control risks | Management Regulations 1999, regulation 3: make a suitable and sufficient assessment, including work-related stress. HSE’s Management Standards are guidance, not a statutory test. | A survey that identifies harm but leads to no action |
| Make reasonable adjustments | Equality Act 2010, section 20: address substantial disability-related disadvantage, subject to the employment duty’s knowledge requirements. | An app instead of considering changed duties |
| Pay SSP | Pay eligible employees for qualifying sick days. See the calculation below. | Wellbeing points instead of money owed |
| Prevent sexual harassment | Equality Act section 40A: take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment. Stronger duties are scheduled for 30 October 2026. | Resilience training while harassment continues |
Tell your employer in writing if you are pregnant, have recently given birth or are breastfeeding. Where work creates a risk, it must consider changing conditions or hours, then suitable alternative work. If neither resolves it, eligible employees have a right to maternity suspension on full pay. A pregnant kitchen worker lifting heavy stock needs an assessment, not a fitness challenge. See GOV.UK’s guidance and pregnancy discrimination rights.
Work is making you ill: what to do today
- Keep a record. Note the shift, workload, missed breaks, symptoms and witnesses. Save relevant rotas, messages and payslips securely, without copying unnecessary confidential information.
- Report the cause. Tell your manager what is harming your health. Ask for a risk assessment and action. If the manager is the problem, use another manager or the grievance procedure. Involve your representative.
- Ask for specific changes. A carer may need realistic travel time; a warehouse picker may need altered duties. Explain any disability-related disadvantage. You can ask for safer work without meeting the disability test.
- Follow sickness reporting rules. Seek medical help when needed. Notify your employer by its deadline, or within seven days if it has not set one. Self-certify for the first seven calendar days; a fit note is normally needed for longer absence.
- Get advice early. Contact your union, Citizens Advice, a law centre, Acas in Great Britain or the Labour Relations Agency in Northern Ireland. Ask which claim fits and which deadline is running. Do not wait for a grievance to finish.
In Great Britain, Acas confirms that most claims about problems on or after 1 October 2026 have a limit of six months less a day. Most problems before that date still have three months less a day. For example, a discriminatory act on 1 October normally gives a deadline of 31 March 2027 before any early conciliation adjustment. Timely notification to Acas pauses the clock; a grievance does not. Ongoing conduct and some urgent remedies need separate advice.
A refusal to assess a risk does not itself create a tribunal claim. Report safety failures to HSE or the local authority in Great Britain, or HSENI in Northern Ireland. Discrimination, dismissal or retaliation for protected safety activity may create separate claims. Get advice before resigning. See safety enforcement and work-related stress claims.
A union can challenge workload collectively. Ask about Usdaw for retail, UNISON for care and NHS support, Unite or GMB for logistics and hospitality, or IWGB in parts of gig and outsourced work. Check who represents your workplace. Joining does not guarantee legal cover for an existing dispute.
Can you be forced to join or share health data?
An optional fitness app is different from a safety-critical health check. Ask whether the requirement comes from law, your contract or an optional benefit. Do not assume every medical assessment can be refused without consequences.
The ICO says an employer relying on consent for a wellness app must offer genuine choice without negative consequences for declining or leaving. Consent is rarely suitable at work because of the power imbalance. Legally required monitoring needs another lawful basis.
Health information is special category data. Processing needs a lawful basis under Article 6 of the UK GDPR and a condition under Article 9. The employer must collect only what it needs and explain purpose, access and retention. Ask whether your manager sees individual information, what remains confidential and what happens in an emergency.
In Great Britain, Equality Act section 60 generally restricts pre-offer health questions, with narrow exceptions such as recruitment adjustments or an intrinsic job function. After an offer, discrimination and data protection duties still apply. A step-count bonus that disadvantages disabled staff may raise an equality issue; rewarding participation is not automatically unlawful.
What sick pay is worth in real money
From 6 April 2026, eligible employees get the lower of £123.25 a week or 80% of average weekly earnings, without waiting days or an earnings floor. SSP covers qualifying days, usually your working days, for up to 28 weeks subject to the rules. Check your contract for any top-up.
Example: a part-time cleaner’s sick pay
Amara is an eligible employee aged 21 or over. She works 20 hours over five days at the £12.71 National Living Wage rate that applies from 1 April 2026. Assume her average weekly earnings are 20 × £12.71 = £254.20. Taking 80% gives £203.36, so the lower statutory figure is £123.25.
With five qualifying days, daily SSP is £123.25 ÷ 5 = £24.65. Her normal day’s pay is 4 × £12.71 = £50.84. SSP replaces about 48% of that pay. Four full qualifying weeks bring £493 in SSP instead of £1,016.80 in wages, a £523.80 shortfall, before tax or any contractual top-up.
Now take an eligible shop assistant whose average earnings are eight hours × £12.71 = £101.68 a week. Taking 80% gives £81.34, rounded to the penny. Their earnings would have been below the old threshold. Removing it matters, but 80% pay still leaves a hole in the week’s budget.
Zero-hours employees can qualify, but the contract label does not settle eligibility. GOV.UK’s conditions include being classed as an employee and having done some work for the employer. For variable pay, ask payroll which earnings reference period it used.
Challenge refused or short SSP with payroll in writing. If unresolved, contact HMRC’s Statutory Payment Disputes Team. A contractual sick-pay claim may need separate advice. Do not wait for future enforcement reforms. See our SSP guide.
Stress, anxiety and reasonable adjustments
Stress is not automatically a disability. An impairment must substantially and adversely affect normal day-to-day activities, meaning more than a minor or trivial effect. The effect generally must have lasted, or be likely to last, at least 12 months. Recurring conditions can qualify; you need not wait a year.
Explain how depression or anxiety affects your daily life and work. A diagnosis alone does not describe the disadvantage. For the employment adjustments duty, the employer generally must know, or reasonably be expected to know, about the disability and likely disadvantage.
Reasonable adjustments may include a phased return, altered duties, changed start times or adjustments to absence triggers. What is reasonable depends on the circumstances. A flexible working request is a separate day-one right for employees in Great Britain, not a guaranteed change of hours or a substitute for adjustments.
Equality Act section 15 protects against unfavourable treatment because of something arising from disability, such as absence-related shift cuts. The employer may defend treatment as a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim, or show it did not know and could not reasonably have known about the disability. See mental health discrimination.
Agency, zero-hours and self-employed work
Employees have safety and equality protections, SSP subject to eligibility, and flexible working request rights. Ordinary unfair dismissal requires qualifying service; discrimination and some automatically unfair dismissal claims do not.
People with worker status but not employee status can still have safety and equality protection. Removing the SSP earnings floor did not change their employment status. Agency workers may qualify for SSP under separate rules; check who pays you.
Agency and hirer share safety responsibilities. After 12 qualifying weeks in the same role, equal-treatment rules cover basic pay and working conditions, but not the hirer’s occupational sick-pay scheme. See agency worker rights.
Genuinely self-employed people do not get SSP or ordinary unfair-dismissal protection. Safety duties to non-employees still apply; personal-service arrangements may attract equality protection. If the business controls your work, get advice before accepting its self-employed label. See employment status. Universal Credit or New Style Employment and Support Allowance may help if you cannot get SSP, subject to their rules.
What changed and what is still waiting
These dates come from the government’s timetable updated on 25 September 2026. The position below is as at 1 October 2026.
- SSP changes in force
Waiting days and the earnings floor removed. Gender equality and menopause action plans remain voluntary.
- Fair Work Agency established
The body exists; sick-pay and holiday-pay enforcement is scheduled for 2027.
- Longer tribunal limits in force
Most Great Britain problems from this date have six months less a day. Earlier problems generally keep previous limits.
- Harassment changes scheduled
All reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment, plus an obligation not to permit third-party harassment. Not yet in force. See sexual harassment duties.
- Dismissal changes scheduled
Ordinary unfair-dismissal qualification falls to six months for dismissals from this date; the compensatory award cap is removed. Fire-and-rehire protections are also scheduled for January.
Scotland and Northern Ireland
Scotland uses the main Great Britain framework. The exception concerns tribunal breach-of-contract claims: where the effective date of termination or last day worked falls before 9 November 2026, the limit is three months less a day; on or after that date it is six months less a day. This is not the deadline for a civil personal-injury claim.
In Northern Ireland, the Equality Act does not apply. Disability rights principally come from the Disability Discrimination Act 1995, and HSENI enforces separate safety law. SSP reform applies, but the Great Britain tribunal-limit extension and January 2027 ordinary unfair-dismissal changes do not. Use the Labour Relations Agency, not Acas. See Northern Ireland rights.
Do wellness schemes help?
Counselling or an assistance programme can help. Deloitte’s 2024 report estimated £51 billion in annual employer costs from poor mental health and an average return of about £4.70 per £1 spent on mental-health interventions. That does not establish the benefit of any particular app or fitness challenge.
A lunchtime class may be useless to a night cleaner. Ask about access during your hours, cost and confidentiality. Paid attendance is worth requesting, but is not a universal statutory right.
Menopause support may mean cooler conditions, breaks or a different uniform, not a poster. Existing disability, sex and age discrimination protections can apply; future action plans do not suspend them. See menopause rights.
Questions people ask
Must your employer run a wellness programme?
There is no general statutory requirement. A contract or collective agreement may promise benefits. Safety, equality and sick-pay duties apply independently.
What should you do if work makes you anxious?
Record the cause and health effects. Ask in writing for a risk assessment and specific changes. Seek medical help and involve your representative. You do not need to prove disability to ask for safer work.
Can an employer ask about health in an interview?
In Great Britain, pre-offer questions are generally restricted. Exceptions include recruitment adjustments and intrinsic job functions. Post-offer questions still face discrimination and data protection rules.
Do low-paid zero-hours workers get sick pay?
The earnings floor is gone, but SSP eligibility still matters. Eligible employees receive 80% of average weekly earnings, capped at £123.25, for qualifying days. Some agency workers qualify too.
Is mindfulness enough if you are bullied or overloaded?
It cannot replace assessing and controlling workplace risks. Bullying can also be unlawful harassment if it meets the equality-law test. Not all bullying does.
Can you refuse a fitness tracker?
An optional, consent-based wellness scheme must offer genuine choice without negative consequences. Safety monitoring may have a different legal basis. Ask for the purpose and privacy information; get advice if refusal threatens your job.
Sources
- Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, sections 2 and 3, legislation.gov.uk
- Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, including regulations 3 and 16 to 18, legislation.gov.uk
- Equality Act 2010, sections 6, 15, 20, 26, 40, 40A and 60, Schedules 1 and 8, legislation.gov.uk
- Employment Rights Act 2025, legislation.gov.uk
- Employment Rights Act implementation timetable, GOV.UK, updated 25 September 2026
- Employment tribunal time limits and transitional rules, Acas, updated 1 October 2026
- SSP eligibility, sickness notification and fit notes, GOV.UK
- SSP claims and payment disputes, GOV.UK
- Rates and thresholds for employers 2026 to 2027, GOV.UK
- National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage rates, GOV.UK
- Pregnant employees’ rights and workplace safety, GOV.UK
- Health monitoring, wellness apps and consent, ICO
- Data protection and workers’ health information, ICO
- Work-related stress, anxiety and depression statistics 2024/25, HSE
- Fair Work Agency delivery plan for 2026 to 2027, GOV.UK
- Tribunal Statistics Quarterly, January to March 2026, Ministry of Justice
- Poor mental health costs UK employers £51 billion a year, Deloitte, 2024
- Sick pay rights, nidirect
- Disability Discrimination Act 1995 and Health and Safety at Work (Northern Ireland) Order 1978, legislation.gov.uk