This year will see a series of legislative changes that will have ramifications for workers, employees and employers. It is shaping up to be a busy year for new employment laws. The changes in policy cover:
• holiday pay
• flexible working
• greater protection for those pregnant or returning from maternity leave
• new rights for those with caring responsibilities
• duty on employers to prevent sexual harassment.
Holidays
From 1 April 2024, new laws on holiday entitlement and pay come into effect, requiring employers to maintain full normal pay levels for at least four weeks of an individual’s holiday entitlement and allowing workers to carry forward unused holiday entitlement in certain circumstances. If you pay overtime, commission or other allowances to your workers, you should check that you are factoring this into their holiday pay as required. You should also make sure that you are reminding workers about the need to use up their holiday entitlement within the holiday year.
The headline changes include:
1. re-introducing rolled-up holiday pay for irregular hours and part-year workers;
2. re-introducing the 12.07% of hours worked calculation method for irregular hours and part-year workers;
3. changes to the definition of a week’s pay for holiday pay calculations;
4. changes to carry over of holiday rules.
*** Next month the newsletter will focus in more detail on the new laws on holidays ***
Flexible working
On 6 April 2024, workers will be able to ask for flexible working from day 1 of employment (instead of having to complete 6 months of employment before putting in a request). It may raise the prominence of the right to request flexible working at a time when some employers are taking a tougher approach to office attendance, but ultimately the changes are limited: whether to accept or decline a request remains in the hands of the employer.
Carer’s leave
From 6 April 2024, the new right to carer’s leave also comes into effect. From this date, employees will have a new statutory right to a week’s unpaid leave to care for a dependent. Whatever the size or nature of your business, you are likely to employ some workers with caring responsibilities even if they have not previously disclosed that they are a carer. You will need to think about updating or creating new policies, introduce a system of record-keeping to track the number of days taken and ensure that people managers are aware of this new right.
Returners from family friendly leave
From 6 April 2024, employees who are pregnant or returning from maternity, adoption or shared parental leave will gain priority status for redeployment opportunities in a redundancy situation. The changes will materially increase the numbers of employees with protection (for example, fathers taking just 6 weeks’ of shared parental leave will become eligible for 18 months of protection). If you are considering or planning restructuring in 2024, you will need to think through the implications of the new protections and the practical issues that may arise.
Paternity leave
Also in April 2024, the government is expected to make minor changes to paternity leave. This will allow paternity leave to be taken at any time in the first year and to be split up into two separate blocks of one week. The current six-month qualifying period, overall limit of two weeks’ leave and low levels of statutory payment will continue, however, so this does not make paternity leave into a much bigger right.
Looking ahead to the remainder of the year, there continues to be a lot of legislative change.
Fair distribution of tips
The long-awaited new law on the fair distribution of tips seems likely to come into effect on 1 July 2024, impacting employers in the hospitality sector.
Right to request a predictable working pattern
A new statutory right to request a predictable working pattern is also due to come into force in around September 2024 giving all workers the right to request a more predictable contract and requiring employers to put new processes in place for handling those requests. While the new right appears to apply to a wide range of workers, employers will retain the right to reject requests.
Proactive steps to prevent sexual harassment
On 26 October 2024, the Worker Protection Act comes into effect, requiring employers to take proactive steps to prevent their employees from being sexually harassed at work. Ahead of the October commencement date, the Equality and Human Rights Commission will be publishing new guidance or a new Code of Practice on what proactive steps employers are expected to take. What the EHRC say (whether in new guidance or a new Code) will be critical in setting the bar for employers. That bar has gone up in a post #metoo world, so all employers need to pay close attention to this development.
Data Protection and Digital Information
At some point during 2024, the government is expected to pass its Data Protection and Digital Information Bill, which aims to maintain data protection adequacy with the EU while relaxing a few areas that may benefit employers, including a less expansive definition of personal data and a new ability to ignore vexatious or excessive data subject access requests.
Neonatal leave
A new right to neonatal leave is also on the way providing parents with a right to 12 weeks’ leave and pay when their baby requires neonatal care in addition to existing parental leave entitlements. The government has indicated that this will not take effect until April 2025 but it could potentially happen sooner.
Potential new laws that are only at the moment being talked about….
• a statutory right to time off for fertility treatment
• a capping to the length of post-employment non-compete clauses at three months
What about the impact of a Labour victory in 2024 on employment laws?
Headline proposals include:
• a right not to be unfairly dismissed from the first day of employment (scrapping the current two-year qualifying period);
• a move to a simple two-part framework for employment status (abolishing the three categories we have now);
• a ban on zero-hours contracts;
• strengthened trade union rights including a right of entry to workplaces;
• further strengthening of harassment laws; and
• the introduction of ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting.
In summary:
2024 looks set to be a year of significant change to employment legislation. This comes as employers are facing a range of other employment challenges, including:
• enforcing stricter return to office policies,
• managing conflicting viewpoints amid the so-called ‘culture wars’
• trying to stay on top of the developments in AI.
For assistance to create new, or amend existing, policies to reflect the new changes that are coming down the line this year please email nicola.goodridge@goodhr.co.uk or call +44 7917 87838
