Changes to Employment Law in 2024

2024 will see a number of employment law developments. There are several changes to employment legislation coming in 2024 that employers need to know about, so make sure to adjust your company’s policies accordingly!  

Statutory Carer’s Leave

From 6th April 2024, employees who have caring responsibilities will be able to request a week's carers leave. Carer’s leave will be unpaid; however, all other terms and conditions of employment should remain in place.

Statutory carer’s leave will be a day one right, meaning there is no minimum period of service required for an employee to be eligible to take it.

Carer’s leave must be taken for the purposes of providing or arranging care for a dependent with a long-term care need.

New rules around flexible working requests

In June 2023, the UK Government committed to introducing a day-one right to request flexible working for employees.

On 11th December, the Flexible Working (Amendment) Regulations 2023 were published.

This new legislation comes into force in April 2024 and will ensure that employees will have the right to make flexible working requests from the first day of their employment. 
It is thought that millions will benefit from more flexible working measures. Flexible working is a broad term and can relate to working hours or patterns including part-time working, term time working, flexi-time, compressed hours or adjusting start and finish times. It can also include flexibility over where someone works.
As well as benefits to employees, the measures are also good for business. Research has shown that companies that embrace flexible working can attract more talent, improve motivation and reduce turnover, boosting productivity and competitiveness.

Changes to National Minimum Wage / National Living Wage

The national minimum wage (NMW) applies to all workers and is paid at different rates according to age. There is a separate rate for apprentices, and a National Living Wage (NLW) that applies to workers aged 23 and over. This will be expanded to include workers aged 21 and over from 1 April 2024.

The current and upcoming NMW/NLW rates (which represent gross pay) are as follows:

Age	Rate from April 2024
National Living Wage for workers aged 21 and over *	£11.44
Development rate for workers aged 18-20	£8.60
Young workers rate for workers aged 16-17	£6.40
Apprentices under 19, or over 19 and in the first year of the apprenticeship	£6.40

The minimum wage rates are reviewed annually. Any changes take effect from April.

Extended legal protection from redundancy for pregnant staff

The draft Protection from Redundancy (Pregnancy and Family Leave) Act 2023 has been laid before Parliament and is expected to come into force in April 2024.

Under current rules, before offering redundancy to an employee on maternity leave, shared parental leave or adoption leave, employers have an obligation to offer them a suitable alternative vacancy where one exists.

The new legislation will enable redundancy protection to be extended so that it applies to pregnant women as well as new parents returning to work from a relevant form of leave. Experts say that this legislation will help shield new parents and expectant mothers from workplace discrimination, offering them greater job security at an important time in their lives.

Changes to paternity leave and pay

The UK Government has published a draft statutory instrument, Paternity Leave (Amendment) Regulations 2024. 

The amendments include the following:

• An employee will be able to take either two non-consecutive weeks' paternity leave or a single period of either one week or two weeks' leave.

• The period in which paternity leave must be taken will be extended to 52 weeks after the birth of the child.

• The length of notice required has been reduced from 15 weeks before the expected week of childbirth, to 28 days prior to each period of paternity leave, facilitating better planning for both employers and employees.

It is anticipated that the changes will take effect in relation to children whose expected week of birth is after 6th April 2024 and children whose expected date of placement of adoption is on or after that date.

Actions employers should take now

It’s important to stay on top of your business’ legal compliance. Here are a few short ways to ensure you’re keeping up to date:

• Submit your 2023-2024 gender pay gap report by March 30th (public sector) or April 4th (private and voluntary sectors) if you have more than 250 employees.

• Review and amend your policies and employee handbooks to ensure they cover the new changes and how you will manage them.

• Arrange for a compliance audit to be carried out within your workplace.

• Consider whether you need to create new policies and working practices.

Please get in touch if you would like to know more about this topic or for anything else HR related - polly@rathbonehrsolutions.co.uk