Employment Law Updates usually take place each April, this year however bucks the trend with changes starting from January and carrying on throughout the year.
Here’s our rundown of employment law updates for the year. What’s been, what we know is coming and what to expect later in 2024 and beyond.
The Equality Act 2010 (Amendment) Regulations 2023
From 1 January 2024 the amendments to the act aim to reproduce into domestic law in areas that would have ceased to apply at the end on 2023 due to the Retained EU Law Act 2023.
The changes relate to:
- Indirect discrimination where a person without a relevant protected characteristic suffers substantively the same disadvantage as those with that protected characteristic
- Direct discrimination related to pregnancy, maternity and breastfeeding
- Direct discrimination relating to access to employment
- The right to equal pay where employees’ terms are attributable to a single source
- The definition of disability in relation to employment
Employment Rights (Amendment, Revocation and Transitional Provision) Regulations 2023
This amendment became effective 1 January 2024.
Irregular or part year workers holiday calculations
From any annual leave year starting on or after 1 April 2024 you will be able to use the calculation of 12.07% of hours worked to determine what holiday has been accrued against worked time.
Holiday pay also uses the 12.07% calculation. You should use it against all pay, including any commission and overtime payments for the 52 weeks preceding the period of leave.
Rolled up holiday pay is also being reintroduced. This means you can either chose to put the holiday in a ‘pot’ for the worker to use and be paid for at a later date or pay it in the relevant week/month salary payment. Any periods of annual leave would then be unpaid as the worker will have already been paid for the time.
If you decide to roll up holiday pay then you must make sure there is a separate line on the pay slip to show that you have done so.
TUPE
There is no longer a requirement for an employer that has less than 50 employees to consult with affected employees via a representative on transfers into their business and instead can consult directly.
From 1 July 2024 where there are less than 10 employees transferring, regardless of the size of the employer the business will be able to consult directly with employees if there are no existing representatives in place rather than having to go through the process of representative elections.
Right To Work Fines Increase
As an employer have a duty to check every employee’s right to work. The check itself will provide you with a statutory excuse, s your defence against a civil penalty if an employee is found to be working illegally.
From 13 February 2024 if you’re found to be illegally employing someone with no statutory excuse, you will be fined. £45,000.00 per illegal employee and £60,000.00 for repeat breaches.
Paternity Leave (Amendment) Regulations 2024
From 8 March 2024 a number of changes relating to Paternity Leave become effective for children whose expected week of birth or those that are placed for adoption is on or after 6 April 2024.
Paternity leave will now be able to be taken as a single period of one or two weeks. As well as two non-consecutive weeks.
Prior to this amendment leave had to be taken within the first 56 days of the date of the birth or placement of the child. This has now been extended to within 52 weeks of birth or placement.
NMW
National Minimum Wage and National Living Wages rates increase as of 1 April 2024.
If you are an employer who pays national minimum wage your salary budget is going to increase. Even if you currently pay over NMW, with these increases and the lowered age for national living wage you should check that your employees will be receiving at least statutory pay from April. It may also have a knock on effect if your starting salary increases significantly, for those higher up the pay scales if you want to maintain a differential between salary bands.
Rates:
- National Living Wage for over 23s £11.44 (currently £10.42)
- 21-22 Year Old Rate £11.44 (currently £10.18)
- 18-20 Year Old Rate £8.60 (currently £7.49)
- 16-17 Year Old Rate £6.40 (currently £5.28)
- Apprentice Rate (1st year only) £6.40 (currently £5.28)
- Offset accommodation £9.99 (currently £9.10)
IMPORTANT: The National Living Wage age threshold will be lowered to 21 from April. You will need to check that employees aged from 21 will be receiving the new correct rate of pay and make salary adjustments if they fall below the NMW.
Other statutory rate increases
Maternity, adoption, paternity, bereavement and shared parental pay increases to £184.03 per week (or 90% of the employee’s average weekly earnings if this figure is less than the statutory rate). This increase usually takes place the first Sunday in April, which in 2024 is 7 April.
Maternity Allowance – An employee who earns less than £123.00 per week but meets the qualifying criteria will be entitled to claim a Maternity Allowance of £184.03 per week (or 90 per cent of their average gross weekly earnings per week if this figure is less than the statutory amount) but this isn’t paid by the employer
Statutory sick pay will increase on 7 April 2023. The new rate is £116.75 per week, increased from £109.40
Redundancy pay – The cap on the maximum amount of a week’s pay for calculating redundancy pay will increase from £643 to £700 from 6 April 2024
Unfair dismissal compensatory award – The maximum amount that can be awarded for an unfair dismissal compensatory award will increase from £105,707.00 to £115,115.00 on 6 April 2024
The Flexible Working (Amendment) Regulations 2023
From 6 April 2024 the right to make a request will no longer require any period of continuous service. It can be made from day one of employment.
An employee will be able to make 2 requests in 12 months instead of just one. However, only one request can be live at any time.
An employer will need to respond within 2 months rather than three.
The employer will need to consult with an employee before a request can be declined.
The employee making the request no longer has to determine the impact of the request on the business or make suggestions as to how they can be managed.
Protection from Redundancy (Pregnancy and Family Leave) Act 2023 – Extended redundancy protection
Employees who are pregnant or taking/returning from a period of maternity, adoption or shared parental leave will have extended protection against redundancy from 6 April 2024.
There is a bit of a myth that you can’t make any employee who is pregnant or on a period of maternity, adoption or shared parental leave redundant. You cannot make an employee redundant because of a reason related to their pregnancy or parental leave and you must treat all employees fairly and equally. This means you should include these employees in a pool with colleagues carrying out the same role.
However, if they are selected for redundancy whilst on maternity, adoption or shared parental leave then an employee has enhanced rights to be placed into a suitable available alternative role without going through a competitive interview.
The period of enhanced rights will increase from 6 April 2024.
An employee who is pregnant or on maternity leave is protected from the time they disclose their pregnancy to you until 18 months after the birth of the child, or 18 months from the Expected Week of Childbirth if you are not notified.
An employee taking adoption leave is protected from the beginning of the adoption leave for a period of 18 months from the placement or date of entry into GB of the child. Inclusive of any other statutory leave.
An employee taking shared parental leave only is protected from the start of the SPL until the end of the SPL if that period of leave is less than 6 months. When more than 6 weeks of SPL is taken, protection increases to 18 months from the date of birth of the child. Inclusive of any other statutory leave.
If the employee has also taken maternity or adoption leave the periods for that specific leave applies.
The Carers Leave Regulations 2024
As of 6 April 2024 we have a new piece of statutory legislation that entitles employees up to one week of unpaid leave in any 12 month period. A day one right if they have a dependant with long-term care needs and will be absent due to providing or arranging care for their dependent. This does not included standard childcare.
Employment law updates in the pipeline (still!!)
Fire and rehire expected spring 2024 is the Statutory Code of Practice on Fire and Rehire
Allocation of tips bill ensuring fair allocation of tips for hospitality staff is expected July 2024
The right to request more predictable hours is being introduced later this year, expected September.
The Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act 2023 will place a duty on employers to take reasonable steps to avoid discrimination and harassment in the workplace. Fines will increase where there is a failure of this duty. Expected in the autumn.
The Neonatal Care (Leave and Pay) Act 2023 will come into effect in 2025. This will give eligible employees paid time off if their baby needs neonatal care.
Non-compete clauses There is an intention to limit non-compete clauses to 3 months. However, as yet there is no date for implementation.
