2024 will see a flurry of new employment law changes that will have substantial ramifications for business owners, HR managers, and workers. We have outlined these changes below, detailing what impact they will have on employers and employees.
New employment law legislation in 2024
1. The Protection from Redundancy (Pregnancy and Family Leave) Act 2023
The Protection from Redundancy (Pregnancy and Family Leave) Act 2023, which will come into effect on 6 April 2024, amends the Employment Rights Act 1996 (ERA 1996) so that employees who are in “a protected period of pregnancy” or are returning from parental leave will need to be given first refusal of any suitable alternative employment where an employer is proposing redundancies.
The new legislation enhances the existing protections meaning that employees are protected during their pregnancy (provided that they make their employer aware) until a period of time after their statutory leave has ended.
Failure to comply with the provisions may permit an employment tribunal to find that any subsequent dismissal by an employer was unfair.
2. Carers’ Leave Act 2023
Whilst the Carers’ Leave Act 2023 (the Act) technically came into effect in May 2023, it required supplementary regulations to deal with the detail meaning that it will also come into force properly on 6 April 2024.
The Act amends the ERA 1996 to create a statutory ‘day one’ entitlement for employees, who are caring for a dependant with “long-term care needs”, to take up to one week of flexible unpaid leave every year. A long-term care need is defined as:
- an illness or physical or mental injury that needs, or is likely to require, care for more than three months;
- someone who has a condition that meets the definition of disability under the Equality Act 2010; or
- requiring care in connection with old age.
A dependant includes an employee’s spouse, civil partner, child, or parent. The definition of dependent includes a person who lives in the same household as the employee (not including any boarders, employees, lodgers, or tenants of the employee). A person who reasonably relies on the employee to provide care, or to make arrangements for care, will also satisfy the definition of dependent.
An estimated two million UK workers are currently juggling paid employment with unpaid caring responsibilities, according to the charity, Carers UK.
3. The Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act 2023
This legislation will be rolled out later this year (expected October 2024) and will amend the Equality Act 2010 to obligate employers to take “reasonable steps” to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace. This means that employers may be found liable where they have, in the opinion of the employment tribunal, failed to take such reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace. The legislation aims to place greater responsibility on employers to make their workplaces safer for all staff.
Where an Employment Tribunal is satisfied that sexual harassment has occurred, and the employer failed to take reasonable steps to prevent the incident(s), the new legislation allows the judge to increase the compensation payable to the claimant. The amount of the compensatory uplift will depend upon the extent of the harassment subject to a maximum of 25%.
4. Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Act 2023 (the Act)
The Act also comes into force on 6 April 2024. By amending the ERA 1996, this legislation provides employees with the right to request flexible working from the first day of their employment. Previously, such a request could only be made after 26 weeks of employment.
The Act also permits employees to make two flexible working requests in any 12-month period; previously, only one flexible working request could be made within such timeframe. However, the Act makes clear that employees cannot make a second request whilst their first request is still ongoing.
This new legislation abolishes the current requirements for employees to explain what effect, if any, the flexible working request would have on their employer and for employees to propose how to deal with the effects their flexible working would have on the employer.
Under the Act, employers now need to make a decision within two months of receiving the flexible working request instead of three as stipulated under the old legislation.
5. The Workers (Predictable Terms and Conditions) Act 2023 (the Act)
This Act introduces a right for employees who have fixed-term and zero-hour contracts and agency workers to request changes to the terms and conditions within their contracts to obtain predictable working patterns. The legislation will amend the ERA 1996 and come into effect in September 2024.
The legislation confirms that no more than two requests for applications to vary contracts for the purpose of requesting predictable working patterns can be made within any 12-month period and, a second application cannot be made where the first application is still ongoing.
The Act sets out the different regimes for applications and the bases on which employers can decline such requests.
Employees will be able to bring complaints against their employers in an employment tribunal if they fail to comply with the legislation. Where a complaint is successful, employment tribunals will have the power to order the employer to reconsider the application and to pay compensation to the employee.
6. The Employment Rights (Amendment, Revocation and Transitional Provision) Regulations 2023
This new legislation came into force on 1 January 2024, bringing significant changes to:
- the way that annual leave and holiday pay is calculated for part-year and irregular hours employees;
- the requirement for employers to keep records of employees’ working time and rest period under the Working Time Regulations (WTR); and
- the consultation requirements under the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations (TUPE).
The new method for calculating accrued holiday entitlement for part-year and irregular-hours employees is at a rate of 12.07% for the hours worked during each pay period. The regulations also introduce a new formula for calculating the accrued holiday entitlement where such employees are on sick leave or any form of statutory leave. The regulations make clear that employees cannot accrue more than 28 days of annual leave in any given leave year.
Under the regulations, where part-year and irregular hours employees take sick leave or statutory leave which makes them unable to take their holiday entitlement, they can carry the untaken leave forward into the following leave year. The regulations do limit this right where absence is due to statutory leave in that the carried forward leave must be taken within 18 months of the end of the leave year in which the untaken holiday was from.
Employers now have the opportunity to implement ‘rolled-up’ holiday pay for employees who work part-year and irregular hours. Rolled-up holiday pay is where employers include a top-up (equivalent to 12.07%) to the employees’ overall pay, the top-up element represents accrued but untaken holiday entitlement.
Changes to the WTR mean that employers no longer need to keep detailed records of workers’ daily working hours if they can show satisfactory compliance in other ways.
The regulations also change the TUPE consultation requirements that apply to micro businesses, for transfers taking place after 1 July 2024. Employers that have fewer than 50 employees, or who are undertaking a TUPE transfer of fewer than 10 employers, can consult directly with the employees and are no longer required to consult with elected representatives.
7. Neonatal Care (Leave and Pay) Act 2023
This new legislation is not expected to be effective until April 2025, but it should be on the radar of every employer. By amending the ERA 1996, this Act will obligate employers to grant paid leave to employees who have a child in neonatal care.
Parents will be entitled to take at least one week of paid leave when their baby requires neonatal care. This will be in addition to existing parental leave entitlements, such as maternity, paternity, and shared parental leave. Moreover, parents will have a statutory entitlement to neonatal care pay in such circumstances where they are required to take leave for this purpose.
Once the legislation comes into effect, neonatal care leave and entitlement to neonatal care pay will be a day-one employment right. It will apply to parents of babies (up to 28 days old) who are admitted into hospital to receive care of medical or palliative kind who have been in hospital continuously for a period of at least 7 days (starting on the day after the day on which care starts).
What impact will these employment law changes have on employers in 2024?
- Employers must think carefully about redundancies of employees who are in a protected period of pregnancy or who are on/returning from parental leave;
- Employers should be reviewing their practices to ensure they are taking reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace (by considering their policies and training); and
- Employers should be aware that, from April 2024, they will only have two months to deal with flexible working requests; and
- Employers should consider whether they wish to implement ‘rolled-up’ holiday pay to their part-year and irregular-hours employees and, if so, employers should communicate with such employees to make clear when such payments will be made.
How can we help?
For further information about the subjects discussed in this article, please contact our expert Employment Law team in Derby, Leicester, or Nottingham on 0800 024 1976 or via our online enquiry form.