Employment Law changes in 2024

This year (2024) is to be a significant one with some key changes and reforms within the workplace which impact on individuals and businesses alike. There is also the potential for radical changes if the Labour government comes to power!

National Minimum Wage

The national living wage is increasing to £10.42 an hour to £11.44 an hour giving a boost of £1,800 for full-time workers over the age of 21. National Minimum wage for younger workers aged 18 -20 will also increase to £8.60 an hour – a £1.11 hourly pay rise. The eligibility for the national living wage will also be extended by reducing the age threshold from 23 to 21. In addition National Insurance has been cut from 12% to 10%. This will save those on an average salary of £35,000 over £450 a year.

Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Act 2023 – 6^th April 2024

The Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Act 2023 is also to come into force on 6 April 2024. These regulations will remove the current 26-week minimum period of service for employees to make a request for flexible working, meaning that it will become a ‘day one’ right with effect from 6 April 2024.

• Employees will be able to make two flexible working requests (rather than just one as at present) in any 12-month period. Only one request can be in progress at any time.

• Employers will be required to ‘consult’ with employees before rejecting any request, although the Act does not include any details of what the consultation process should be.

• Employees will no longer be required, as at present, to identify the effects of the proposed change and suggest how the employer might deal with them.

• Employers will be required to respond to a request within two months rather than three months as currently applies, subject to an agreed extension.

A new ACAS Code of Practice on handling flexible working requests is also due to be approved shortly.

Carers Leave Act – 6^th April 2024

Employees will have a new statutory right to take one week of unpaid leave per year to provide or arrange care for a dependant with a long-term care need.

These new regulations are expected to apply from 6 April 2024 and details are set out in The Carer's Leave Regulations 2024 which have been published in draft form.

Who is entitled to carer's leave?

This will be a right afforded to all employees who meet the eligibility requirements and is a "day one" right meaning it does not require a particular length of service. To be eligible for carer's leave, an employee must:

• have a dependant with a long-term care need;

• want to be absent from work to provide or arrange care for that dependant; and

• not have exceeded their entitlement of one week of carer's leave in the relevant 12-month period.

A person is a "dependant" of an employee if they (i) are a spouse, civil partner, child or parent of the employee; (ii) live in the same household as the employee, otherwise than by reason of being the employee’s boarder, employee, lodger or tenant, or; (iii) reasonably rely on the employee to provide or arrange care.

A "long-term care need" is defined as an illness or injury (whether physical or mental) that requires, or is likely to require, care for more than three months; a disability under the Equality Act 2010; or issues related to "old age". The carer's leave can be taken in half day or individual day increments up to one continuous week in a 12-month period. The leave does not need to be taken on consecutive days.

What are the steps for employees and employers?

The employee has to give notice to their employer before they can take carer's leave. The employee must specify that they are entitled to this leave, the days or part days on which they intend to take it, and the dependant for whom they are providing or arranging care.

The employer cannot require the employee to supply evidence in relation to their request for carer's leave before granting the leave. The required notice period is either twice as many days as the period of leave required, or three days, whichever is the greater.

Employers cannot decline a request, but can postpone the leave if all of the following circumstances apply:

• If the employer reasonably considers that the operation of the business would be ‘unduly disrupted’.

• The employer allows a period of carer’s leave to be taken by the employee of the same duration, within a month of the initial request.

• The employer gives the employee written notice within seven days of the request, providing the reason for the postponement and confirming the agreed dates for the leave.

Protections:

The employee is protected from any detriment or dismissal by the employer because they took, sought to take, or made use of the benefits of carer's leave, or because the employer believed that they were likely to take carer's leave.

The regulations do not affect any contractual rights to carer's leave that the employee may have, but the employee cannot exercise the statutory and contractual rights separately. The employee can take advantage of whichever right is more favourable in any particular respect.

What steps do you need to take?

This right is coming into play in April 2024, in the meantime employers should look at their current policies and consider creating or updating these to cover this new right.

The Maternity Leave, Adoption Leave, and Shared Parental Leave (Amendment) Regulations 2024 – 6^th April 2024

Draft regulations bringing into effect the extension to the existing period of redundancy protection applying to employees during family-related leave have also been laid before Parliament. Subject to parliamentary approval, these will take effect from 6 April 2024.

Currently, parents taking a period of maternity leave, adoption leave, or shared parental leave have the right to be offered any suitable alternative employment during a redundancy situation, in priority to any others at risk of redundancy.

As a result of the Protection from Redundancy (Pregnancy and Family Leave) Act 2023, this protection is extended to apply during pregnancy, and for a period of 18 months after birth or placement for adoption for those taking maternity, adoption or shared parental leave. This means that for an employee taking 12 months’ maternity leave, the protection will continue to apply for six months after their return to work.

Protection will cover a period of pregnancy, if the employer is informed of the pregnancy on or after 6 April 2024. It starts when the employee informs their employer about the pregnancy.

The protection will apply to maternity and adoption leave ending on or after 6 April 2024, and to shared parental leave starting on or after 6 April 2024. Note that for protection to apply after shared parental leave, there is a minimum threshold of six weeks’ continuous leave.

Employers will need to review their current policies and procedures in advance of April 2024 to ensure that they take account of these changes.

Paternity Leave Regulations - 6th April 2024

The government has now published draft legislation in the form of the Paternity Leave (Amendment) Regulations 2024.

These Regulations make the following changes:

• employees will be able to take their two-week paternity leave entitlement as two separate one-week blocks rather than taking just one week in total or two consecutive weeks.

• employees will be able to take paternity leave at any time in the 52 weeks after birth - rather than having to take leave in the 56 days following birth.

• employees will only need to give 28 days’ notice of their intention to take paternity leave which is reduced from the previous position that required notice to be given 15 weeks before the Expected Week of Childbirth.

The Regulations are stated to apply in all cases where the EWC is on, or after, 6 April 2024.  

Employment (Allocation of Tips) Act – July 2024

Last year, the Employment (Allocation of Tips) Act 2023 was passed by parliament. Once this act is in force it will introduce a range of new measures, including a new duty on employers to ensure that all qualifying tips are allocated fairly between workers and a requirement for relevant employers to have a written policy on how they deal with tips.
 
To support employers with these measures, the Department for Business and Trade has now issued a draft statutory code of practice on the fair and transparent distribution of tips. The draft code includes guidance on what types of payment constitute qualifying tips and how an employer should choose the factors to determine the allocation and distribution of such tips. The consultation into the draft code will close on 22 February 2024. The government’s aim is for the final code and the full measures in the Act to come into force on 1 July 2024.
 
The Workers (Predictable Terms and Conditions) Act 2023 – predicated September 2024

This Act was was passed on 18 September 2023 and creates a new statutory right for workers on atypical contracts - such as agency workers, short fixed-term workers and those on zero-hours contracts - to request a more predictable working pattern. It is important for employers using these arrangements to be aware of the changes.

The Workers (Predictable Terms and Conditions) Act 2023

Although flexibility is a key characteristic of the UK labour market, the Act aims to address the issue of 'one-sided flexibility' whereby workers are not guaranteed work but are expected to be available at short notice with a lack of reciprocity.

The terms of the Act are summarised below, however the details will be published in due course via separate regulations. There is no date for implementation yet, but to give employers time to prepare for the changes the legislation is not expected to come into force until September 2024.

The new right is modelled on the current flexible working regime and will operate in a similar way. However, the right to request predictable working will not be a 'day one right' (as the right to request flexible working is set to become).

In what circumstances can workers request a more predictable working pattern?

Workers will have the right to make a request where:

• There is a lack of predictability as regards any part of the work pattern (the work pattern being the number of working hours, days of the week and times on those days when the worker works, and the contract length);

• The change relates to their work pattern; and

• Their purpose in applying for the change is to get a more predictable work pattern.

Who can request predictable working?

The right extends to all workers and employees subject to a minimum service requirement. Although the length of this has not yet been specified, the government press release has indicated that it will be 26 weeks.

It is not expected that workers will need to have 26 weeks continuous employment, given the aim of the legislation is to improve unpredictable working patterns for atypical workers who are inherently unlikely to have continuous service with the same employer. However, workers need to have been employed by the same employer (whether or not under the same contract) at some point during the month immediately before the minimum service period, ending with the making of the application.

The new law will also apply to agency workers who, if they meet the qualifying conditions, will be able to apply to either the temporary work agency or the hirer to request a more predictable working pattern.

How can predictable working requests be made?

Workers can make a maximum of two applications in any 12-month period. The predictable working application must be (i) in writing; (ii) state that it is a statutory predictable working application; and (iii) specify the change applied for and the date on which it is proposed it should take effect.

If the agency worker is applying to a hirer, they should specify whether the application is for a contract of employment or for a worker's contract. The Act provides some guidance on assessing this.

What about fixed term contracts?

The Act does not contain a definition of 'predictability'. However, it does specify that fixed term contracts of 12 months or less will be presumed to lack predictability: anyone on such a contract will be able to request that the term is extended beyond 12 months or becomes permanent.

What does this mean for employers?

The process for dealing with requests reflects the existing flexible working regime. It is not a right to predictable working, it is a right to request predictable working and provided employers deal with the application within one month of receiving it, they are able to refuse the request for one (or more) of the following six grounds:

• Burden of additional costs

• Detrimental effect on ability to meet customer demand

• Detrimental impact on the recruitment of staff

• Detrimental impact on other aspects of the temporary work agency's, hirer's, or employer's business

• Insufficiency of work during the periods the worker or agency worker proposes to work

• Planned structural changes

The government has highlighted the need for effective conversations between workers and employers about the reason(s) for rejecting a request.

Failing to deal with an application in a reasonable manner, or rejecting an application based on incorrect facts, will risk a claim based on procedural failings, Employees will have protection against automatic unfair dismissal, and both employees and workers protection from being subjected to a detriment, where they have made or propose to make an application for a more predictable work pattern. There could also be a risk of indirect discrimination claims if requests from certain disproportionately represented groups are routinely rejected (e.g. women, disabled people, young workers).

The Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act 2023 – expected October 2024

The Act introduces a new duty on employers to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment at work and it will take effect on 26 October 2024.

In summary, the Act introduces a new duty on employers to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of their employees in the workplace and gives employment tribunals the power to provide an uplift of up to 25% in compensation when an employer has failed to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment.

Ahead of the new law becoming effective in October 2024, employers are advised to take proactive steps to ensure compliance. Relevant policies and procedures in relation to equal opportunities, harassment and bullying should be reviewed to ensure inclusion and explanation of the new rules.

Employers should also have in place a clear and secure process for employees to report harassment, and that those responsible for dealing with complaints are able to do so in a lawful and effective manner.

Other expected changes this year

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.

It is also expected that early this year we will receive the final version of the code of practice on ‘Fire & Rehire.'

How we can help...

2024 looks set to be a busy year from an employment law perspective. As ever, Lawson-West Solicitors is here to help you navigate the compliance challenges thrown up by new legal developments. 

Contact our experienced Employment Law Team on 0116 212 1000

View all