Sick Pay Rights 2026: What Employers Need to Know
Understand SSP 2026 updates, employer responsibilities, and common pitfalls to keep your business compliant and protect staff rights.
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Insight
The Government has announced that pregnant women and new parents will receive greater protection from redundancy under proposed new legislation set out in The Pregnancy and Maternity Discrimination Bill.
As it stands, pregnant women have limited protection in the context of redundancies, with the most noteworthy protection only applying when the employee is on maternity leave. Essentially, workers on maternity leave have the right to be treated favourably in that, in a redundancy scenario, they have the right to be offered a suitable alternative role (if one exists), without a competitive process. An employee could also raise an automatic unfair dismissal claim if the employee was on, or was about to go on, maternity leave and the reason for the dismissal was their maternity leave. In addition, there is scope to claim unlawful discrimination under the Equality Act 2010 if an employee is treated unfavourably for reasons related to pregnancy.
If the new bill is implemented, it will:
Employers will still be able to make pregnant women or new parents redundant in the protection period provided:
As part of the fair process, all relevant employees, including pregnant women and new parents, should be part of the redundancy pool and selection criteria should be applied to determine those who will be provisionally selected for redundancy.
If a pregnant woman or new parent is selected to be considered for redundancy within the protection period, they will then have the right to be offered any available suitable alternative vacancy in priority to other employees who are not afforded the additional protection (where such a role exists).
There has currently been no indication as to when the proposed new legislation will be implemented; however, we will keep you informed of any further developments and updates as they arise.
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For advice and assistance on issues relating to redundancy, please contact our employment law and HR specialists on 01332 226 155 or fill in the form below and a member of the team will be in touch.
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