Guides

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has released its latest figures on sickness absence rates of workers in the UK for 2025.

In its Next Steps to Make Work Pay plan, the Government promised to review the implementation of carer’s leave, which was introduced into law in April 2024, and the benefits and impact of making it a paid right

The Government has begun four new consultation exercises on key legal updates contained in the Employment Rights Bill. Despite the Bill still not having received Royal Assent, the Government appear to be keen to push on with defining the shape of the new employment rights provided for in it.

Mumsnet is calling on MPs to back an amendment to the Employment Rights Bill requiring large employers with more than 250 employees to publish their parental leave policies and pay. The parenting site, which has been campaigning for change in this area since 2019, has written to all the FTSE 250 urging them to publish their parental leave policies. According to figures for 2024, 43 of the FTSE 100 companies already provide this transparency.

Sickness absence affects every business of every size, and when an employee calls in sick, it can have a massive impact on operations. But, on a wider scale, how big is the problem of sickness absence for UK businesses. Well, the CIPD has published its Health and Wellbeing at Work 2025 report, supported by simply health.

The CIPD has published its Health and Wellbeing at Work 2025 report, supported by Simplyhealth. The report found that employees in the UK took an overall average of 9.4 days’ sickness absence per year. This is a significant increase from an overall average of 7.8 days in 2023 when the survey was last carried out and 5.8 days in 2022.

A return to work template is a document or framework that manages employees’ transition back to the workplace after an absence. It benefits employee and manager, ensuring clear communication and consistency. It may include an information section, a guide for managers, and a section for outlining any agreements. Key aspects are confirming employees’ fitness, disclosing the cause of absence and possible recurrences, and deciding on reasonable adjustments, such as a phased return, flexible working, and necessary equipment.

If you have never created a written warning letter for sickness absence before, there's no need to stress - Peninsula has a template you can download for free.

This employment law guide explores the basics of employee annual leave entitlement and offers guidance on how to avoid common pitfalls.

This employment law guide explores the basics of sickness absence and offers guidance on how to avoid common pitfalls.

Employees have a statutory right to take time off work to deal with emergencies involving a dependant. It is often mistaken for the right to take time off for any kind of emergency, however, it is not.

This employment law guide explores the basics of maternity, paternity, adoption, shared parental & parental leave and time off for dependants and offers guidance on how to avoid common pitfalls.