Legislation Update April 2024
March 28, 2024
April sees the arrival of some long-awaited changes in employment law, along with updates to statutory rates including National Minimum Wage, Statutory Sick Pay (SSP), Statutory maternity Pay (SMP), Statutory Paternity Pay (SPP). In particular:
- Changes to flexible working rules
- The introduction of Carer’s Leave
- Extended protections in redundancy situations for pregnant employees and those who have recently returned from maternity or adoption leave and shared parental leave
Flexible working
From 6th April all employees will have the right to request flexible working arrangements from day one of employment, instead of waiting until 26 weeks of service is accrued.
Flexible working refers to a work arrangement that allows an employee more flexibility in how, when and where they work, including options like:
| job-sharing | part-time working | annualised hours |
| compressed hours | flexi-time | term-time working |
| swapping hours | reduced working hours | working from home |
| hybrid working | career breaks | flexible shift working |
Key changes
- Right to request flexible working from day one of employment
- Two flexible working requests can be made in any 12 month period, instead of one.
- Employers must respond to requests within two months, instead of the current three months.
- Employers must give full consideration to all request for flexible working. If a request is rejected the reasons for this must fall into one of 8 statutory reasons for refusal and the reasoning behind the decision must be explained to the employee.
Acas are due to publish their new Code of Practice on 6th April.
Carer’s Leave
The Carer’s Leave Act 2023 makes provision for a maximum of one week unpaid leave per year for those with caring responsibilities. The leave can be taken flexibly in either full or half days to meet planned and foreseen caring commitments.
The right will apply from day one of employment and will apply to anyone caring for a dependant including:
- a spouse
- a civil partner
- a child
- a parent
- a person who lives in the same household but is not a tenant, lodger, boarder or employee those who reasonably rely on you for the provision of care or for assistance if they fall ill or become injured e.g. an elderly neighbour.
A request for carer’s leave cannot be refused but the leave may be postponed if the employer reasonably considers that the timing of the leave would cause undue disruption to the operation.
Protection from Redundancy (Pregnancy and Family Leave) Act 2023
Under current legislation employees on family related leave e.g. maternity leave, shared parental leave or adoption leave already have additional protections when faced with a redundancy situation. From 6th April, these additional protections will be extended to pregnant employees and those who have recently returned from maternity or adoption leave and shared parental leave, effectively giving them priority status for redeployment opportunities in a redundancy situation.
How can we help?
If you need some help to update your existing policies or develop new ones please get in touch, we’d be delighted to help.
Photo by CQF-Avocat: https://www.pexels.com/photo/scrabble-tiles-613508/
