Our regular employment law update brings our clients the latest top picks of employment law developments that may affect your business.

Remember though, we’re always here to answer any questions you have and to help you navigate the wondrous world of employment law in managing your people. Plus if you need help creating or updating any of your HR policies or contracts relating to any changes we’ve reported on, you know where we are!

This month we focus specifically on the changes coming into force in April 2024:

* New right to time off as a ‘Carer’.

* Changes in the rules around Paternity Leave.

* Extended protection for new or expectant parents in a redundancy situation.

* Changes to Flexible Working rights.

* Changes in holiday pay for irregular and part-year workers.

* National Living/Minimum Wage & other statutory pay increases.

* Preventing Illegal Working.

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New Carer’s Leave

From 6 April 2024, from day one of employment, employees will be entitled to 1 week’s ‘unpaid’ leave every 12 months (rolling 12 months) to give or arrange care for a dependant with long-term care needs.

Long-term care needs include physical/mental conditions, disability or simply old age, which lasts for 3 months or longer.

A dependant is defined as:

* A spouse, civil partner, child or parent of the employee; or

* Someone who lives in the same household as the employee who reasonably relies on the employee to provide care for them.

The one week can be taken as individual days or half days and the employee needs to give either 3 days’ notice or twice as many days as the period of time they want to take off, whichever of these is greater.

You aren’t allowed to deny the request and can’t ask them to provide evidence before you give them the leave but you can postpone the leave under strict circumstances and in compliance with certain rules.

So, get thinking about your policies. I’d suggest an adaptation to your ‘Time Off for Dependants’ Policy if you have one.

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Paternity Leave Changes

Changes to paternity leave rules will apply where a child’s expected week of childbirth or adoption is on or after 6th April 2024.

The changes mean, for example, that fathers or partners:

* Can take two non-consecutive blocks of one week of paternity leave (rather than the current position of having to book one block of two weeks or only being able to take one week).

* Can take that leave at any point in the 52 weeks after the birth or adoption (rather than currently only in the first 8 weeks after the birth or adoption).

* Can give you a shorter notice period of 28 days’ notice before taking the leave or 7 days of the adopter receiving notice of being matched with a child, in domestic adoption cases.

It’s worth thinking about how you’ll factor any amendments into paternity leave and pay policies.

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Extended Protections for New/Expectant Parents in a Redundancy Situation

At the moment under current law, parents on maternity, adoption or shared parental leave (SPL) (during the period of leave) have additional protections in a redundancy situation meaning that they must be offered a suitable alternative job, if one exists, over and above other employees.

The new legislation coming into force will extend this protection for a longer period depending on the circumstances, for ‘example’:

* The additional protected period begins as soon as an expectant mum tells you they’re pregnant (or advises you of an adoption) and ends 18 months after the birth of the baby or adoption placement date.

* In the event of a miscarriage, the protected window is two weeks after the pregnancy if it was less than 24 weeks or for the entire statutory maternity leave period if it was longer.

* If parents take more than six weeks of SPL (but haven’t already taken maternity/adoption leave), then the protection lasts until 18 months after a child’s date of birth but if they take less than six weeks of SPL, the protected window lasts only until the leave is over.

Whilst policies will probably not need to be amended to take the protections into account (unless, of course, you have a redundancy policy – not a policy I’d recommend having), the upcoming rules represent a significant material risk, so you need to be mindful of protected windows, be proactive in predicting when and to whom they’ll apply and consider suitable alternative roles where vacancies exist. Failure to do this can lead to automatic unfair dismissal and discrimination rulings at employment tribunals (not requiring 2 years’ service) and uncapped compensation.

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Flexible Working Changes

Yes, it's been coming for a long time and I don’t know about you, but the main reaction that I’ve heard to this has been a Kenneth Williams level of outrage that employees should be given a day-one right to request flexible working!

Alas, from 6 April 2024, the current flexible working rights will change, to become a day 1 right. However, if you’ve read the draft Acas Code of Practice (which is still to be rubber-stamped), you’ll know that it‘s more than that. Remember Tribunals take into account whether companies have followed the various Acas Codes of Practice when making compensation decisions.

Whilst the basic principles will remain similar, the focus is much more on facing the employee, either to explain the reasons why a request can’t be granted or to come up with a solution (i.e. suggesting alternative ways of broadly achieving the request, even if it has to be changed to do that).

So apart from being a day 1 right, what else is a ‘must’ according to the amended legislation and code?

* The request must be written and include specific information.

* Employees must be allowed to make two requests (currently only one) in any 12-month period.

* You must agree to a request if you can’t prove that at least one of the statutory reasons for refusing a request applies.

* Information and reasons must be provided for why you can’t accommodate the request.

* You must consult the employee before deciding to reject the request. The Acas code makes it clear that you must make every effort to accommodate a request so the focus is on facilitating a discussion to understand how the request – or parts of it – could be accommodated, not simply rejecting it.

* You must communicate a decision to the employee within a period of 2 months.

* The employee must be given a reasonable opportunity to attend any meetings.

* There are many ‘optional extras’ weaved through the new Code too which employers would be sensible to seriously consider in their processes. I know I sound like a broken record now, but factor in, where appropriate, changes to your existing flexible working policy where you have one.

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Changes in Holiday Pay for Irregular Hours & Part-Year Workers

In April 2024, we will see significant changes in employment law relating to holidays regarding irregular-hours workers and part-year workers defined as follows.

* Irregular Hours Workers: Staff whose working hours vary significantly from week to week, including those on zero-hours contracts.

* Part-Year Workers: Employed for only a part of the year, with definite non-working periods for which they’re not paid, e.g. certain term-time employees.

Hallelujah! Rolled-up holiday pay is now permissible (again) for irregular and part-year workers, which will make things much easier for employers as you’ll be able to purely include an additional amount of 12.07% of hours worked for holiday pay, with their regular wages, at each pay date.

These changes become effective from holiday years beginning on or after 1 April 2024.

So the key requirements for the lawful Implementation of Rolled-Up Holiday Pay are:

* Clear Calculation: The holiday pay must be calculated at 12.07% of the worker’s regular earnings during the pay period.

* Separate Itemisation: Holiday must be itemised separately on the worker’s payslip, clearly distinguishing it from other wages.

* Simultaneous Payment: It should be paid concurrently with the regular pay for the work done, not at the time the leave is taken.

* Transparency and Communication: Employers should ensure transparent communication with their employees about how rolled-up holiday pay is calculated and paid.

* Record-Keeping: Maintaining accurate records of holiday pay is essential for demonstrating compliance with the new regulations.

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National Minimum Wage and Other Statutory Pay Increases

The new annual rate changes for 2024/2025 come into effect in April with a few quirks relating to the National Minimum and National Living Wage. Look at the table below and review your staff to make sure you’ll be paying them enough when the changes happen.

Rates/Hour from 1st April 2023 to 31st March 2024	Rates/Hour from 1st April 2024
Those aged 23 and over are paid £10.42	Those aged 21 and over will be paid £11.44
Those aged 21 and 22 are paid £10.18	See the box immediately above
Those aged 18 to 20 are paid £7.49	Those aged 18 to 20 will be paid £8.60
Those aged under 18 or who are an Apprentice* are paid £5.28	Those aged under 18 or who are an Apprentice* will be paid £6.40
Please note the following about Apprentices. Apprentices will receive the Apprentice Rate set out above if:- They’re aged 19 or under, or They’re aged 19 or over and are in the first year of their apprenticeship. Apprentices will then receive the National Minimum Wage or the National Living Wage if:- They’re aged 19 or over, and They have completed the first year of their apprenticeship.

In addition to the above, other statutory pay rates are changing too. For example:

Statutory Sick Pay rate increases to £116.75 per week.

Statutory Maternity & Paternity Pay rate increases to £184.03 per week.

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Preventing Illegal Working

In other news, a new Code of Practice came into force from January 2024. The new changes triple the penalties for hiring illegal workers and there are extended powers to impose stricter restrictions on employers. So make sure you are conducting those right-to-work checks on every person you employ!

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There are many more changes in employment law to come in 2024 but don’t worry we’ll keep you updated!

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Disclaimer

The intention of this update is to give general information only and isn’t intended to be an exhaustive statement of the law. Although we’ve taken care over the information, you should not rely on it as legal advice. We do not accept any liability to anyone who does rely on its content.