Every Employment Rights Act date, worked out for your staff
Put in start dates and sickness absences. Get each person’s unfair dismissal qualifying date, the day to hold their probation review, Statutory Sick Pay across linked absences, and the documents to update before each change.
The Employment Rights Act on one wall planner
- In force
- Date fixed in law
- Pencilled in — no commencement order yet
-
Apr 2026
Today -
May–Sept 2026
Today -
Oct 2026
Today -
Nov–Dec 2026
Today -
Jan 2027
Today -
Feb–Dec 2027
Today- Fire and rehire limits , March 2027 (planned)
- Tipping policy review , 1 January 2027 (planned)
- Flexible working: reasonable refusals , October 2027 (planned)
- Bereavement leave , April 2027 (planned)
- Guaranteed hours , No date yet
- Pregnancy dismissal protection , October 2027 (planned)
- NDAs on harassment void , September 2027 (planned)
Business settings: England and Wales, 6 months probation, review 14 days before it ends
Sets bank holidays for review dates and SSP.
Moved back to a working day if it lands on a weekend or bank holiday.
Import a staff list (CSV or paste from a spreadsheet)
Columns in this order, or with headers: id, start date, weekly hours, average weekly earnings, contract type, working days, probation. Only the first two are needed. Dates as DD/MM/YYYY. Working days like Mon-Fri or Mon, Wed, Fri.
No staff yet. Add a person above or paste your list — initials or a payroll number are enough. Nothing leaves this browser.
What Wallchart works out
Unfair dismissal qualifying dates
For employment ending before 1 January 2027 the qualifying period is two years; from that date it is six months (details). Wallchart gives each person the first date they are protected under whichever rule applies, counting the first day of work as the law does.
Probation review deadlines
Set your usual probation length and how far ahead you want to decide. Review dates step back off weekends and the bank holidays for England and Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland, and Wallchart flags anyone whose probation runs past their protection date.
SSP across linked absences
GOV.UK’s calculator handles one period of sickness. Wallchart takes every absence, links periods 56 days or less apart, applies the pre- and post-6 April 2026 rules (waiting days, earnings limit, 80% rate) and the 28-week limit, and shows each day on a calendar.
Dated document checklist Free during beta
Contracts, sickness and family leave policies, holiday records, the harassment policy and more — each with a review-by date tied to the change that affects it, exportable to your calendar with reminders and printable as one pack.
Wallchart is a set of calculators and checklists for employers, not legal advice. Each rule links to legislation.gov.uk, GOV.UK or Acas, and changes that depend on regulations not yet made are marked as planned.
Frequently asked questions
When does the 6-month unfair dismissal rule start?
It applies where employment ends (the effective date of termination) on or after 1 January 2027, under the Employment Rights Act 2025 s.25 and S.I. 2026/559. Anyone who has six months’ service on 1 January 2027 is protected from that day; before then the two-year rule still applies.
How do I work out an employee’s qualifying date?
Service counts from the first day of employment, so six months are complete on the day before the six-month anniversary: someone who started on 15 January 2027 qualifies for employment ending on or after 14 July 2027. Wallchart does this for every person and handles the 1 January 2027 changeover.
Do short sickness absences link for SSP now?
Yes. Since 6 April 2026 a single day of sickness is a period of incapacity for work, and any two periods 8 weeks (56 days) or less apart are linked. Linked periods share one 28-week maximum. The SSP calculator here handles several absences at once.
Is there a statutory probation period?
No. Probation is whatever your contract says; the Employment Rights Act 2025 did not create a statutory probation period. What changed is that unfair dismissal protection now arrives at six months, so the review date matters more.
What is the SSP rate for 2026/27?
£123.25 a week, or 80% of the employee’s average weekly earnings if that is lower, payable from the first qualifying day of sickness for up to 28 weeks. There are no waiting days and no lower earnings limit from 6 April 2026.
Does my staff data get uploaded?
No. Staff labels, dates, earnings and absences are stored only in your browser’s local storage. You can use initials or payroll numbers instead of names, download a backup file and clear everything at any time.
Does this apply in Northern Ireland?
Only partly. The SSP changes apply across the UK, but the unfair dismissal, family leave and harassment changes in the Employment Rights Act 2025 apply in England, Wales and Scotland. Northern Ireland has its own employment law.
Guides for small employers
- ERA 2025 timeline for small employers
Every Employment Rights Act 2025 date that matters to a business with under 50 staff, from April 2026 to 2027, with what is law and what is still planned.
- SSP changes April 2026 for employers
What changed in Statutory Sick Pay on 6 April 2026 — no waiting days, no earnings limit, the 80% rate — with worked examples and the transitional rules.
- Linked periods of incapacity (SSP) explained
How SSP linked periods of incapacity work after April 2026 — the 56-day rule, one-day absences, the 28-week cap and the 3-year limit — with worked examples.
- Unfair dismissal qualifying period changes 2027
From 1 January 2027 the unfair dismissal qualifying period drops from 2 years to 6 months. How it applies to existing staff, 2026 notice and compensation.
- Probation periods after the ERA (2027 rules)
There is no statutory probation period, but unfair dismissal protection starts at 6 months. How long probation should be in 2027 and when to review.
- Day-one employment rights list for 2026/27
Which employment rights start on an employee's first day in 2026/27, which need service (1 month, 26 weeks, 6 months, 2 years), and what changed in April 2026.
- Updating employment contracts for 2026/27
Clause-by-clause checklist for small employers updating contracts, written statements and the handbook for the Employment Rights Act 2025 changes in 2026/27.
- Sexual harassment duty for small firms (2026)
From 30 October 2026 employers must take all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment, including by customers. A plan for firms under 50 staff.
Get reminders before each date
Everything here is free during the beta. Tell us which paid extra would save you the most time and we will email you when it ships — nothing else.