Your Rights Regarding Health, Sickness, and Family

Your employer has a duty to support your health and wellbeing. UK law also provides a framework of rights to help you balance your work and family commitments.

Sickness Absence

If you are unwell and unable to work, you have certain rights and protections.

  • Statutory Sick Pay (SSP): If you are off work sick for 4 or more days in a row and meet the eligibility criteria, you are entitled to SSP. From April 2025, the rate is £118.75 per week for up to 28 weeks. Your employer may offer a more generous contractual sick pay scheme.

  • Dismissal due to Sickness: You can be dismissed while on sick leave, but your employer must follow a fair process and have a fair reason, usually that you are no longer capable of performing your job. If your illness is a disability, you have strong legal protection, and your employer must first consider making "reasonable adjustments."

Family-Friendly Rights

  • Maternity & Paternity Leave: You have the right to take statutory time off work following the birth of a child, and you may be eligible for statutory pay.

  • Shared Parental Leave: Eligible parents can share up to 50 weeks of leave and 37 weeks of pay in the first year after their child is born or adopted.

  • Time Off for Dependants: You are entitled to take a reasonable amount of unpaid time off to deal with an unforeseen emergency involving a dependant (such as a child, partner, or parent who relies on you for care).

Flexible Working

The law gives all employees the right to request changes to their working patterns.

  • The Right to Request: From day one of your employment, you have the legal right to request flexible working arrangements. This could be a change to your hours, your times of work, or your place of work (e.g., working from home).

  • Employer's Duty: Your employer is not automatically required to grant your request, but they must handle it in a "reasonable manner" and can only refuse it for one of the specific business reasons set out by law.

  • Need to make a request? [Speak to Someone]