New updates are released for the Employment Rights Act 2026
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The Employment Rights Act, starting in December 2025, released the next series of legal measures on the 6th April 2026.
What does this mean for you?
- Statutory Sick Pay is now payable from the first day of sickness with no 3-day waiting period. Low-paid and part-time workers are also eligible as the lower earnings limit has been removed.
- Employees are entitled to Paternity Leave and Unpaid Parental Leave from their very first day on the job.
- Employers must retain adequate holiday pay records to demonstrate compliance with holiday pay rules for 6 years.
What do you need to include in your holiday pay records?
Payroll procedures have become more formal and heavily enforced with a specific focus on time and attendance record keeping for annual leave and subsequent pay. Record keeping must include:
- Precise dates and total hours/days of annual leave used by each employee
- Holiday accrued and rolled over from the previous year
- Full details on how holiday pay is calculated, including overtime, commission, and bonuses
- Unused holiday pay issued at the end of employment
- Records must be securely stored for 6 years from the date they were created
Failure to adequately keep records is now classified as a criminal offence with a risk of unlimited fines.
Records will be audited by the Fair Work Agency (FWA).
Are you tracking holiday manually or using automated software?
Do your employees holiday pay rates variable depending on overtime or commission?
Kelio have got you covered!
- Manually entering time and attendance data can lead to multiple mistakes and inaccuracies meaning it can no longer be relied upon with the new law. Kelio’s all-in-one Time and Attendance, Access Control and HR solution, automatically calculates rolling averages of working hours to accurately determine holiday pay, including variables such as overtime and bonuses.
- Sickness leave will be automatically triggered from day one, sending SSP absence codes straight to payroll – no mistakes and no wait time!
- Kelio’s Onboarding module enables new employees the ability to request family and bereavement leave from day one providing visibility to HR managers.
- Kelio’s Time and Attendance solution will automatically and securely archive all data, including annual leave, for 10 years.