Keep up to date with employment law changes in the UK, including legislation that businesses and employees should be aware of.
Holiday entitlement law
New rules on calculating holiday entitlement and an option to pay rolled-up holiday pay will come into force this year. These changes apply to part-year workers and those working irregular hours. Holiday entitlement for these workers will accrue at the rate of 12.07% of the hours worked during that pay period.
The new changes can be applied from holiday years starting on or after 1 April 2024. So if your business’s holiday year runs January to December, the business will be able to implement the new rules from 1 January 2025.
Paternity leave
The law on statutory paternity leave and pay is changing on 6 April 2024. This means there are different rules depending on when someone’s baby is due. It might be written in their contract that they get more than statutory paternity leave. This can be called ‘enhanced’ or ‘contractual’ paternity leave.
If the baby is due on or before 6 April 2024
An employee can choose to take either 1 or 2 weeks’ statutory paternity leave. They must take the leave all in one block.
If the baby is due on or after 7 April 2024
An employee can choose to take either 1 or 2 weeks’ statutory paternity leave. They can take the leave as either: 2 weeks together or 2 separate blocks of 1 week.
Carers’ leave
From 6 April 2024, employees will be entitled to unpaid leave to give or arrange care for a ‘dependant’ who has:
- a physical or mental illness or injury that means they’re expected to need care for more than 3 months
- a disability (as defined in the Equality Act 2010)
- care needs because of their old age
The dependant does not have to be a family member. It can be anyone who relies on them for care.
Employees are entitled to carer’s leave from their first day of work for their employer. Their employment rights (like holidays and returning to their job) are protected during carer’s leave.
Employees can take up to one week of leave every 12 months. A ‘week’ means the length of time they usually work over 7 days. For example, if someone usually works 3 days a week, they can take 3 days of carer’s leave. They can either take a whole week off or take individual days or half days throughout the year.
Flexible working
From 6 April 2024, employees will be able to request flexible working from the first day of a job. We expect other changes to be confirmed for 6 April too.
The government was due to publish separate regulations bringing into force the changes set out in the Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Act 2023. These have failed to materialise yet, but Acas has issued a revised statutory code on requests for flexible working, which incorporates these changes.
Sexual harassment
The Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act 2023 will come into force in October 2024 and introduces a new duty for employers to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment at work.
Employers already face liability for any harassment at work unless they can show that they have taken all reasonable steps to prevent this from happening. This includes having the right policies in place, training everyone on these policies and ensuring incidents are addressed in an appropriate manner. It’s extremely important for businesses to get this right because if you are found to be in breach, tribunals will be able to increase compensation by up to 25 per cent.
This is a brief roundup of the key employment law changes in 2024. For further guidance, always contact us for our specialist advice on 01792 468684 or email enquiries@pgmsolicitors.co.uk.
