Day-one rights mean small tech employers must get hiring right first

On 6 April 2026 a major set of Employment Rights Act 2025 reforms took effect. Statutory sick pay (SSP) is now payable from the first day of sickness absence rather than the fourth, whatever the employee earns, and paternity leave and unpaid parental leave are available from the first day in a new job, the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) said on 7 April. The Fair Work Agency, which brings three enforcement agencies into one, launches on 7 April.

The department puts numbers on it. Employees will receive around £400m a year in extra sick pay. Some 32,000 new fathers and partners gain the right to paternity leave from day one instead of waiting six months, and 1.5 million working parents no longer wait a year to qualify for unpaid parental leave. SSP is now the lower of £123.25 a week or 80% of average weekly earnings.

For a software company or managed service provider that already pays full salary to staff who are off sick, the sick pay change will cost little. Firms with lower-paid support desks or part-time staff on statutory terms will feel it more.

But the cost is not the main story for small tech employers. The shape of a new hire’s first months is. Rights that used to arrive after a qualifying period now arrive on day one, and unfair dismissal protection is next. The probation period is no longer a stretch in which the employer owes less. The hiring decision, and how the first six months are managed, are now where the risk sits.

The first week now counts

A startup that hires quickly can now find a new engineer entitled to paternity leave weeks after joining. That is the point of the reform. “Day one rights mean exactly that: rights that are there for you from the moment you start a job, and from the moment you get sick,” said Peter Kyle, the business secretary.

The practical job is to check the handbook. Small companies whose sick pay and family leave policies were written around the old qualifying periods need to revisit them. Any enhanced scheme that still makes staff wait for its benefits now sits on a statutory floor that does not. Policies should say plainly what a new starter gets on day one and what comes later, and line managers need to know it before a request lands on their desk.

The right to request flexible working was already a day-one right. The Act adds a clearer process for employers to follow when a request cannot be agreed and requires a refusal to be reasonable, according to the government’s overview of the Act.

Six months is the new two years

The larger change for employers who hire on trial is still to come. For dismissals from 1 January 2027, the qualifying period for unfair dismissal falls from two years to six months and the cap on compensatory awards goes, according to the government’s timeline for the Act. Someone hired in the summer of 2026 will be protected early in 2027.

That gives small tech firms a deadline for changing habits. A six-month probation used to end with plenty of time to spare before dismissal protection began. From January 2027 the two will meet. Employers who leave a poor hire unaddressed until month five will have little room to act, so objectives, reviews and written feedback in the first months matter more than they did.

Scale-ups planning cuts have a separate number to note. The maximum protective award for failing to consult properly on collective redundancies doubled on 6 April, from 90 to 180 days’ pay, according to the government’s overview and the department’s list of 6 April changes.

One agency now enforces the rules

The Fair Work Agency changes how rules are enforced. It will bring together enforcement of the national minimum wage, employment agency rules and action on labor exploitation, and it is due to take on further functions such as holiday pay enforcement. The government’s overview says the Act gives it an expanded civil penalty regime and the power to bring tribunal cases on behalf of workers.

Small tech companies can keep hiring; they just need to be sure sooner. The hire is now the commitment, and employers that still treat probation as a free trial will find the law has stopped offering one.