Your Rights as an Employee in England, Wales and Scotland

Who this guide is for

Employees and workers in England, Wales or Scotland who want to know their basic rights at work. It covers:

• Whether you are an employee or a worker, and which rights each gets.
• Rights from your first day: a written statement, payslips, the minimum wage, paid holiday and sick pay.
• Money taken out of your pay.
• Being dismissed: who can claim unfair dismissal, and the notice you must get.
• Redundancy pay.
• Discrimination, and disciplinary and grievance meetings.
• Notice when you resign.
• Holiday if your hours vary.
• Paternity leave, unpaid parental leave and asking to work flexibly.
• What to do if your employer does not give you your rights.

What this guide does not cover

• Work in Northern Ireland. The rules there are different: see the Northern Ireland guide.
• Tribunal time limits in detail and how to make a claim: use the tribunal deadline checker.
• Maternity leave and maternity pay: use the maternity pay checker.
• Being paid below the minimum wage, and reporting it: use the minimum wage checker.
• Zero hours contracts: use the zero hours checker.
• Agency workers: use the agency worker checker.
• Gig and platform work, or whether you are self-employed: use the worker or self-employed checker.
• Reasonable adjustments for a disability: use the reasonable adjustments checker.
• Whistleblowing: use the whistleblowing checker.
• Settlement agreements: use the settlement agreement checker. Fire and rehire: use the fire and rehire checker.
• Redundancy pay when your employer is insolvent: use the employer insolvency checker.
• Refusing unsafe work: use the health and safety checker. Bereavement leave: use the bereavement leave checker.
• Challenging a refused flexible working request: use the flexible working checker.
• An employer's own duties: use the employer obligations checker.
• Consultation when 20 or more redundancies are proposed. This guide does not cover this: ask Acas.

The questions that decide the answer

1. Are you an employee or a worker? Employees get every right in this guide that their length of service allows. Workers get the minimum wage, paid holiday, payslips, a written statement and protection from unlawful deductions from pay, but usually not minimum notice, unfair dismissal protection, the right to request flexible working, time off for emergencies or statutory redundancy pay. If you do not know which you are, the answer depends on it.
2. How long have you worked for this employer without a break? 1 month or more: you are owed statutory minimum notice. 2 years or more: you can claim ordinary unfair dismissal and statutory redundancy pay. Where the employment ends on or after 1 January 2027, unfair dismissal needs 6 months. No minimum service is needed for the minimum wage, holiday, statutory sick pay, paternity leave, unpaid parental leave, a flexible working request, or a dismissal for an automatically unfair reason.
3. What happened, and on what date? The date decides which rules apply. Sick pay, paternity leave and parental leave changed on 6 April 2026. Tribunal time limits changed for acts on or after 1 October 2026. Unfair dismissal changes where the employment ends on or after 1 January 2027.
4. Where did you work? This guide is for England, Wales and Scotland. Northern Ireland has its own rules.

"Am I an employee or a worker?"

You are probably an employee if you have to work regularly unless you are on leave, and you have to do a minimum number of hours and expect to be paid for them.

You are likely to be a worker if most of these apply: you occasionally do work for a business; the business does not have to offer you work and you do not have to accept it; your contract uses words like "casual", "freelance", "zero hours" or "as required"; you are under the supervision or control of a manager; and you cannot send someone else to do your work.

If you are still not sure, use the worker or self-employed checker or ask Acas.

"What do I get from my first day?"

• A written statement of your main terms. Your employer must give employees and workers the main document (the "principal statement") on the first day, and the wider written statement within 2 months. They must tell you about any change within 1 month of making it.
• A payslip on or before payday. It must show your pay before and after deductions, any deductions that can change each time you are paid, and the hours you worked if your pay depends on them.
• At least the minimum wage for your age.
• Paid holiday.
• Statutory sick pay from the first full day of sickness absence.
• If you are an employee: the right to ask for flexible working, and, from 6 April 2026, paternity leave and unpaid parental leave.

The written statement is not the same as your employment contract.

"How much is the minimum wage?"

From 1 April 2026 the hourly rates are:

• Aged 21 and over (the National Living Wage): £12.71.
• Aged 18 to 20: £10.85.
• Under 18: £8.00.
• Apprentices: £8.00, if you are under 19, or 19 or over and in the first year of your apprenticeship. An apprentice aged 19 or over who has finished the first year gets the rate for their age.

The rates change on 1 April every year. If you think you are paid less, use the minimum wage checker.

"How much holiday do I get?"

Almost all workers, including employees, are entitled to 5.6 weeks' paid holiday a year. If you work 5 days a week, that is at least 28 days.

The statutory entitlement is capped at 28 days. If you work 6 days a week you are still entitled to 28 days.

If you work regular part-time hours for the whole year, you get 5.6 times your working week. For example, 3 days a week gives at least 16.8 days.

Bank holidays do not have to be given as paid leave. Your employer can count them as part of your 5.6 weeks.

You build up holiday while you are off sick and during maternity, paternity or adoption leave.

Your holiday is counted by holiday year (also called the leave year), not the calendar year. Check your contract or written statement for when yours starts, for example 1 January or 1 April. If no date is set, it starts on the day you started the job and on that date each year after (or 1 October if you started on or before 1 October 1998).

This matters when you work out how much you have taken and how much you are owed. If you started part way through the holiday year, you get a share of the year's holiday for the part that was left. You usually have to take your holiday within the holiday year. In some cases you can carry it into the next one, for example if you could not take it because you were off sick or on maternity, paternity or adoption leave, or your employer did not give you a fair chance to take it. Limits apply.

If you are an irregular-hours worker (the hours you work in a pay period often or always change) or a part-year worker (there are periods of at least a week in the leave year when you do not have to work and are not paid), and your leave year started on or after 1 April 2024, you build up holiday at 12.07% of the hours you work in each pay period, up to 28 days a year. Zero hours contracts: use the zero hours checker.

To work out your holiday in days or hours, use our holiday entitlement calculator.

"I'm off sick. Do I get paid?"

From 6 April 2026, statutory sick pay (SSP) is paid from the first full day of sickness absence, for up to 28 weeks. There are no unpaid waiting days and no minimum earnings.

SSP is £123.25 a week, or 80% of your average weekly earnings if that is lower. Your average weekly earnings are worked out over the 8 weeks before the sickness absence.

Employees get SSP. Workers may also be entitled to it.

If your employer will not pay SSP or pays the wrong amount, ask them for a written statement of their decision. If you still disagree, you can ask HMRC to make a formal decision about your SSP.

"Money has been taken out of my pay"

Your employer is not allowed to make deductions from your pay unless:

• the law requires or allows it, for example income tax, National Insurance or student loan repayments;
• you agree in writing;
• your contract says they can;
• there is a statutory payment due to a public authority;
• you did not work because you took part in a strike or industrial action;
• there was an earlier overpayment of wages or expenses; or
• a court has told your employer to take debt payments.

A deduction cannot normally take your pay below the minimum wage, even if you agree to it. Some deductions are allowed to, such as tax, National Insurance, repaying a loan or an advance of wages, or repaying an accidental overpayment of wages.

If you work in retail, your employer cannot take more than 10% of your gross pay in each pay period to cover shortfalls, such as a till shortage. If you leave, they can take the full amount owed from your final pay.

If you have not been paid in full, speak to your employer first. If that does not work, you can go to Acas, Citizens Advice or your trade union rep, and you have the right to go to an employment tribunal.

A claim for unpaid wages or holiday pay has a time limit counted from the date the pay was due, not from the date you left. For a series of underpayments, it runs from the last one.

A claim for unlawful deductions from wages, including holiday pay, cannot go back more than 2 years before the date the claim is made to the tribunal.

"I've been dismissed. Was it unfair?"

You currently need at least 2 years of continuous employment to claim ordinary unfair dismissal. If your employment ends on or after 1 January 2027, you need at least 6 months.

With enough service, it might be unfair dismissal if there was no fair reason for it, the reason was not enough to justify dismissing you, or your employer did not follow a fair procedure.

It is for your employer to show the reason for dismissing you and that it was a fair kind of reason. The tribunal then decides, looking at all the facts, whether dismissing you for that reason was reasonable, including how your employer went about it. Neither of you has to prove that part.

For a dismissal about misconduct or poor performance, the fair procedure should follow the Acas Code of Practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures. The Employment Appeal Tribunal has decided the Code does not apply to a dismissal for genuine ill health where there is no misconduct or poor performance (Holmes v Qinetiq Ltd, 2016), but your employer must still follow a fair procedure. For other reasons, your employer should still follow a fair procedure.

You can be dismissed if a persistent or long-term illness makes it impossible for you to do your job. Before taking any action, your employer should look for ways to support you, for example by considering whether the job itself is making you ill and needs changing, and give you reasonable time to recover. Acas says dismissal because of long-term illness should be a last resort.

You can appeal through your employer's appeal process. Your employer should tell you how to appeal.

No minimum length of service is needed if you were dismissed for an automatically unfair reason, such as whistleblowing, pregnancy, or raising a health and safety concern.

If you are dismissed while pregnant, or during maternity leave or adoption leave, your employer must give you the reasons in writing, even if you do not ask and however long you have worked.

Otherwise, if you have at least 2 years of continuous employment when your employment ends, you can ask your employer for the reasons for your dismissal in writing. Once you ask, they must give them within 14 days. That 14-day deadline is your employer's, not yours.

If you were dismissed because of a protected characteristic, such as disability, race, sex or age, that is a discrimination claim. It needs no minimum length of service. This guide does not cover discrimination: ask Acas.

Workers are not usually protected against unfair dismissal.

"How much notice should I get, or give?"

If you are an employee and have worked for your employer for at least 1 month, you must get at least the statutory notice period:

• 1 month to 2 years: at least 1 week.
• 2 to 12 years: 1 week for each full year you have worked.
• 12 years or more: 12 weeks.

Your contract can give you more notice than this, but not less.

You are not owed notice if your employer is entitled to dismiss you without notice because of your conduct, for example gross misconduct.

Workers are not usually entitled to minimum notice.

If you resign: you must give at least a week's notice if you have been in your job for more than a month. Your contract will tell you if you must give more, or give it in writing. Otherwise you can tell your employer verbally.

If you do not give enough notice, you may be in breach of your contract, and your employer could take you to court.

"I'm being made redundant. What do I get?"

You are entitled to statutory redundancy pay if you are an employee and have worked for your employer continuously for 2 years or more.

It is worked out from your age, your full years of service and your weekly pay before tax:

• half a week's pay for each full year you worked when you were 21 or under;
• 1 week's pay for each full year you worked when you were 22 to 40;
• 1.5 weeks' pay for each full year you worked when you were 41 or over.

Only the last 20 years of service count. For redundancies from 6 April 2026, a week's pay is capped at £751 even if you earn more. The most statutory redundancy pay can be is £22,530.

If your weekly pay varies, it is based on your average over a 12-week period. Weekly pay includes guaranteed overtime in your contract and contractual bonuses or commission.

Your employer must tell you in writing how your redundancy pay has been worked out.

You may not be eligible for statutory redundancy pay if your employer offers you a suitable alternative job and you unreasonably turn it down.

You must also get your notice period. Your employer should either pay you through your notice period or pay you in lieu of notice.

The armed forces, crown servants, the police, and people in domestic service who are members of the employer's immediate family do not qualify for statutory redundancy pay.

Your employer must pay at least the statutory amount. Your contract may give you more.

"We're having a baby. What leave can I take?"

For maternity leave and maternity pay, use the maternity pay checker.

From 6 April 2026, employees can take paternity leave from their first day of employment. Before that date, they needed 26 weeks of service.

Paternity leave is 1 or 2 weeks. You can take the 2 weeks together or as 2 separate blocks of 1 week.

To take it, you must tell your employer before the end of the "qualifying week", which is the 15th week before the week the baby is due. You must also tell them the dates of your leave at least 28 days before each period of leave.

Statutory paternity pay still needs at least 26 weeks of continuous employment with the same employer, up to any day in the qualifying week.

Statutory paternity pay also needs average earnings of at least £129 a week, and you must still be employed by the same employer at the birth. The qualifying week is the 15th week before the week the baby is due.

Statutory paternity pay is £194.32 a week or 90% of your average weekly earnings, whichever is lower (from 6 April 2026). It is paid for up to 2 weeks.

Workers are not entitled to paternity leave, but they might be entitled to statutory paternity pay.

From 6 April 2026, unpaid parental leave is also a right from your first day of employment. Before that date, it needed 1 year of service.

Neonatal care leave applies from your first day of work. If your baby is admitted to neonatal care up to the age of 28 days, you might be eligible for up to 12 weeks. Eligible parents can take it once the baby has been in neonatal care for at least 7 days in a row.

"I want to work flexibly"

Employees can ask for flexible working from their first day in a job. This is called making a statutory application.

• Write to your employer.
• Your employer must discuss the request with you before refusing it, and decide within 2 months, or longer if you agree.
• If they refuse, they must tell you the business reasons.
• You can make 2 applications in any 12-month period.

It is a right to ask, not a right to have the change. Workers do not usually have this right.

Discrimination at work

• It is against the law to discriminate against you because of: age, gender reassignment, being married or in a civil partnership, being pregnant or on maternity leave, disability, race (including colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin), religion or belief, sex, or sexual orientation.
• You are also protected if you are associated with someone who has one of these characteristics, or if you have complained about discrimination or supported someone else's complaint.
• A discrimination claim must normally be made within 3 months less 1 day of the act you are complaining about, or 6 months less 1 day where that act (or the last act in a series) happened on or after 1 October 2026. Notify Acas first, within your time limit.
• Free advice on discrimination: the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

Disciplinary and grievance meetings

• A disciplinary procedure should include a hearing where you get the chance to explain your side, and a chance to appeal any disciplinary action.
• If you are invited to a disciplinary or grievance hearing, you have the legal right to be accompanied if you reasonably ask. Your companion can be a trade union official, a union rep certified by the union, or another worker at your employer.
• Your companion can put your case, sum it up, respond for you to views given at the hearing, and talk to you during it. Your employer does not have to let them answer questions for you.
• If your companion cannot make the time, you can suggest another time within 5 working days. If it is reasonable, your employer must postpone.
• If a tribunal finds your employer unreasonably failed to follow the Acas Code of Practice, it can increase your award by up to 25%. If you unreasonably failed to follow it, it can reduce your award by up to 25%.

"My employer won't give me my rights. What can I do?"

Speak to your employer first. If that does not work, you can get advice from Acas, Citizens Advice or your trade union.

Before you can make most employment tribunal claims, you must notify Acas to start early conciliation. It is free. Your time limit is paused while conciliation runs, but only if you notify Acas within your time limit.

The Fair Work Agency was set up in April 2026. It brings together the government teams that enforce the minimum wage and other employment rights.

Deadlines you must meet

• Most tribunal claims: 3 months less 1 day from the act you are complaining about, or 6 months less 1 day where that act (or the last act in a series) happened on or after 1 October 2026.
• In Scotland, breach of contract claims, such as unpaid notice pay, stay at 3 months less 1 day for now. A change to 6 months is planned but not yet in force.
• Unpaid wages or holiday pay: counted from the date the pay was due (the last one, for a series).
• Statutory redundancy pay: 6 months less 1 day.
• Notify Acas within your time limit, so that the clock is paused.
• Your exact date depends on your facts: the tribunal deadline checker works it out.

Money figures

• Minimum wage from 1 April 2026: £12.71 (21 and over), £10.85 (18 to 20), £8.00 (under 18 and apprentices).
• Statutory sick pay from 6 April 2026: £123.25 a week, or 80% of average weekly earnings if lower.
• Redundancy pay, for redundancies from 6 April 2026: a week's pay is capped at £751; the most statutory redundancy pay can be is £22,530.

Traps

• Do not use Northern Ireland rules or figures here. Northern Ireland has different service rules and a different redundancy pay cap.
• A worker is not an employee. Workers do not usually get unfair dismissal protection, statutory redundancy pay or minimum notice.
• The 6-month qualifying period for unfair dismissal applies only where the employment ends on or after 1 January 2027. Before that, it is 2 years.
• Statutory sick pay no longer has 3 unpaid waiting days or a minimum earnings level. That changed on 6 April 2026.
• Paternity leave is a day-one right from 6 April 2026, but statutory paternity pay still needs 26 weeks of service.
• Bank holidays are not an extra statutory right on top of the 5.6 weeks.
• Redundancy pay counts only full years of service, and only the last 20 of them.
• Flexible working is a right to ask. Your employer can refuse for a business reason.