We're celebrating this week. Sick pay measures in the Employment Rights Bill cleared the final hurdles and have now been  passed into law!

We started the Safe Sick Pay campaign back in 2021, when the idea of upgrading rights for millions was just a hope and aspiration of a very new organisation. We heard the awful impacts on hundreds of low-paid cleaners, organised with workers, trade unions, civil society and employers - and won.

Under the Employment Rights Bill:

✅ One in three million workers will get day one sick pay, better enabling them to recover from illness safely, rather than return to work before they are ready

✅  One million workers who previously got no sick pay will now get protected if they fall ill with something more serious; we fought for the rate to be 80% of their earnings if they get under £125 a week from their main job

✅  Workers will have somewhere to turn, the Fair Work Agency, if they are ill and don’t get their legal entitlement to support, or are illegally self-employed.

In the four years since the campaign launched, we are proud to have worked with so many allies ranging from Trade Unions, business leaders, health and welfare experts and charities, through to MPs across many political parties - and of course many workers who experienced the injustice of recovery from illness on statutory sick pay.

What’s still to do

Significant problems with our sick pay system remain and the campaign goes on. We will build the case for an increase in the very low weekly SSP rate, which remains relatively low by international standards and continues to cause hardship for many workers. But today, the Government deserves warm praise for setting the country on the right path with these measures.

READ MORE: This is a timeline of some of the key campaign highlights:

https://www.centreforprogressivechange.org/safe-sick-pay-a-timeline