UK employment guides for employers
Straight answers to the questions that come up when you run a rota in the UK. Written around the Working Time Regulations and the Employment Rights Act rather than translated from somewhere else.
Rotas and working time
What you can put on a rota, and what you owe people before you publish it.
Rota laws in the UK
The 48-hour average and the opt-out, the 20-minute break, 11 hours daily rest, night work, and how much notice a shift carries.
Read the guideShift patterns explained
4 on 4 off, continental 2-2-3, Panama and DuPont — the cycle each one runs on, how many teams it needs, and the trade-off it asks for.
Read the guideHow to make a rota in Excel
The Monday-start grid, shift codes, automatic hour totals, and the working time checks a spreadsheet will not do for you.
Read the guideEmployment Rights Act shift rights
Guaranteed hours, reasonable notice of shifts and payment for cancelled shifts — what is coming in 2027 and what to measure now.
Read the guideChanging a rota
How much notice a change needs, whether staff can refuse, approving swaps safely, and the rest limits a change can never cross.
Read the guideTimesheets and working time records
The 48-hour average, opt-outs, night work, and the unpaid working time that quietly turns a fair rate into a minimum wage breach.
Read the guideHoliday and leave
The 5.6 weeks, and every awkward question that follows from it.
How much holiday are UK staff entitled to?
The 5.6 weeks explained: what it comes to in days, why 28 days is a cap, and how carry-over actually works.
Read the guideHoliday for part-time and irregular-hours staff
The 12.07% accrual rate, who it applies to, where the figure comes from, and when rolled-up holiday pay is permitted.
Read the guideBank holidays: are UK staff entitled to them?
Why there is no automatic right, whether they count towards the 5.6 weeks, and why Scotland is not simply England plus two.
Read the guideHow to calculate holiday pay
A week’s pay for fixed hours, the 52-week reference period for variable pay, and what belongs in the average.
Read the guideHandling holiday requests
The statutory notice rules for booking and refusing leave, requiring a shutdown, and deciding competing requests at peak times.
Read the guidePay
The statutory floors, and the ways employers fall through them without noticing.
National Minimum Wage rates and rules
The April 2026 rates, who gets which one, what counts as working time, which deductions bite, and what HMRC penalties look like.
Read the guideOvertime and unsocial hours pay
There is no statutory overtime rate in the UK — what the law does require, and why regular overtime belongs in holiday pay.
Read the guideAbsence and sick pay
Since April 2026 a one-day absence is a payroll event, not just a cover problem.
Statutory sick pay after April 2026
No waiting days, no earnings threshold, and a rate of 80% of average weekly earnings or £123.25 — whichever is lower.
Read the guideThe Bradford Factor
The S² × D formula, worked examples, typical trigger points — and the discrimination risk of wiring it to a disciplinary process.
Read the guideHiring and onboarding
The two obligations with hard deadlines — one before day one, one on it.
Right to work checks
The three valid checks, share codes, follow-up dates, the statutory excuse — and penalties reaching £60,000 per worker.
Read the guideOnboarding a new employee
The written statement of particulars on day one, what it must contain, payroll and pension set-up, and the first fortnight.
Read the guideThe cost of staff turnover
Why published averages disagree, how to build your own figure, and the levers a rota-based business actually controls.
Read the guidePerformance and leaving
Notice, final pay and the January 2027 change that makes on-time reviews matter.
Probation and performance reviews
What probation does and does not do, a process that would survive scrutiny, and why six months from 2027 changes the calculation.
Read the guideNotice periods and dismissal
Statutory notice by service, contractual notice and PILON, gross misconduct, and the unfair dismissal change on 1 January 2027.
Read the guideFinal pay when someone leaves
Accrued untaken holiday, notice pay, which deductions are lawful, and getting the P45 out without delay.
Read the guideRecords and compliance
What you must keep, for how long, and what UK GDPR expects of the rest.
Employee records and UK GDPR
Payroll for 3 years, minimum wage records for 6, right to work for employment plus 2 — and storage limitation for everything else.
Read the guideStaff handbook and policies
Keeping a handbook non-contractual, the policies a shift business actually needs, and why an unissued policy is no defence.
Read the guideFree tools and templates
The guides explain the rules. These do the arithmetic.
Minimum wage compliance checker
Work out what your staff are effectively paid once unpaid time, deductions and accommodation are counted — and what the arrears would be.
Open the checkerFree UK rota templates
Weekly, monthly, rolling 4-on-4-off and blank printable rotas in Excel, with UK shift codes and working time reminders built in.
Browse the templatesNeed a term rather than a guide? The UK employment glossary defines rota, TOIL, zero-hours, rolled-up holiday pay and the rest in a sentence each.
Managing all of this across a shift-based team is where the rules stop being theoretical. RosterElf's rota software, clock-in records and holiday management keep the plan, the hours actually worked and the entitlement in one place.
Built for UK shift-based teams
Rotas, clocking in, holiday and payroll export in one platform — with Working Time Regulations compliance built in.
Real support from people who understand your business
Support isn't a ticket system here — it's part of the product. Our team helps you set up your rota correctly, works through Working Time Regulations and holiday-pay questions with you, and stays available as your team changes.
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Guided setup and onboarding
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Working time and holiday pay questions answered
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Ongoing help as your team grows
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Questions about UK employment rules
- Employers and managers who publish a rota — hospitality, retail, care, security and similar. They are written around the practical questions that come up when you are scheduling people, rather than as a general HR reference.
- Each guide is checked against GOV.UK and Acas and states the date a figure applies from. The rates that matter most change on fixed dates: National Minimum Wage on 1 April each year, and the statutory sick pay rules changed on 6 April 2026.
- No. These are general summaries to help you ask the right questions, and every guide carries a disclaimer saying so. Entitlements depend on contracts, collective agreements and individual circumstances — check GOV.UK or take advice before relying on any of it for a specific case.