April 2024 – Employment Law Updates

Article written by Demi Akande

As of the 6th April 2024 businesses are required to implement new changes to legislation regarding employee relations. Over the past two years, several pieces of legislation have been passed including government bills with
government support. These changes apply to England and Wales. Some key areas of legislation that will be covered in this article are listed below:

Employment Rights (Flexible Working) Act 2023

Under the new regulations millions of employees can now have flexibility over when and where they work. Employees are now entitled to request flexible working arrangements from the very first day of their employment rather than the original 26 weeks. This includes requests for part-time, term-time, flexitime, compressed hours, and varied working locations. Should an employer reject a request for flexible working arrangements then an explanatory reason for this decision is required under the new laws. Previously, employers could reject a request for flexible working  arrangements without an explanation. An employer’s reasons for denying the request remain the same, including factors such as cost to the business or impact on quality, performance or ability to meet customer demand.
Under the new rules, employers are required to respond to flexible working requests within two months rather than what was the standard three months. Under the new legislation, employees can make flexible working requests within any 12 month period; where they previously had one request to make, employees can now make two requests.

Carer’s Leave Act 2023

This act offers a day one right to all employees with caring responsibilities without any qualifying period. This protection is available to anyone caring for a spouse, civil partner, child, parent or other dependant who needs care
because of a disability, old age or any illness or injury likely to require at least three months’ care. The maximum duration of the leave is one week per year, and this leave is unpaid. An employer’s denial of the request is not
permitted. However, an employer can duly postpone the request if they reasonably consider that the operation of the business would be disrupted if it were approved.

This entitlement was created by the Carer’s Leave Act 2023 and the associated Carer’s Leave Regulations 2024.

Protection from Redundancy (Pregnancy and Family Leave) Act 2023

From the 6th April 2024, the legislation to protect employees on maternity leave, shared parental leave or adoption leave extends to pregnant employees and those who have recently returned from maternity or adoption leave and shared parental leave. Employees taking certain types of parental leave now have protection for eighteen months. Previously, employees only had this protection during their period of maternity, adoption or shared parental leave. Now some of the new measures include a pregnant employee who takes maternity leave being protected for eighteen months from the child’s date of birth. Father’s taking shared parental leave will also be protected for eighteen months. In both cases the individual would need to notify their employer before the end of maternity leave.

Now protection begins when the employer is notified of the employee’s pregnancy. This protection ends eighteen months after the date of the child’s birth. Furthermore, in adoption cases and for parents taking adoption leave,
these protections extend to 18 months after the date of adoption. For cases of shared parental leave, the protections are included for eighteen months after the child’s birth where a parent is taking at least six weeks of shared
parental leave.

These protections can be found in the Protection from Redundancy (Pregnancy and Family Leave) Act 2023 and the Maternity Leave, Adoption Leave and Shared Parental Leave (Amendment) Regulations 2024.

Flexibility for Paternity Leave

Employees who take flexible paternity leave and/ or are eligible to paternity pay can now split their two weeks’ entitlement into two separate one-week blocks, rather than taking the two week leave collectively. This leave can be
taken within a two week period at any time within the first year after their child’s birth. Previously, this leave could be taken within the first eight weeks after the child’s birth.

Now employees have to give their employers 28 days’ notice for each week of leave. Previously, this was fifteen weeks. However, employees are still required to give notice of their upcoming entitlement 15 weeks before the
expected date of birth.

See these changes made by the Paternity Leave (Amendment) Regulations 2024.

Other changes

Some other changes within employment law coming into force this year include changes in law and code of practice on how employers distribute tips; Changes in the code of practice regarding dismissal and re-engagement; A new law creating a right to request more predictable working patterns for those workers who are eligible; And a new law requiring employers to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment.