Employment Law Changes 2024
2024 is a busy year for employment law changes! Here are a few of the key changes to look out for:
Statutory Carers Leave
From 6 April 2024, eligible employees can take a maximum of one week’s unpaid leave to look after someone who relies on them for care. This right is available to eligible employees from their first day of employment. Although an employee will be required to provide a minimum amount of notice in order to take this leave, an employer will not be able to refuse an employee’s request but they can postpone it due to business needs.
New Rules for Flexible Working Requests
From 6 April 2024, employees will be able to make a flexible working request from the first day of their employment too. The new rules will allow employees to make two flexible working requests per year (whereas currently they can only make one.) In addition, employers must respond to any flexible working requests within 2 months rather than the current 3 months and must consult with an employee before rejecting a request. The requirement for an employee to explain how they or their employer might deal with any effects the change could have on their work or business has also been removed.
Protection for Pregnant Employees in a Redundancy Situation
Currently, the law states that if an employee’s role is made redundant whilst they are on maternity leave, the employer must give priority status to that employee and consider them for suitable alternative employees before other employees. From 6 April 2024, this right will extend to all pregnant employees who have notified their employer of their pregnancy and this protection will continue until 18 months after the birth of their child. The same protection will apply to those who take adoption or shared parental leave.
New Tipping Laws
From 1 July 2024, it will be illegal for employers to withhold tips from workers. Employers will need to have a written policy in place on how they intend to fairly allocate tips to workers.
Calculating Holiday Entitlement for Irregular Hours and Part-Year workers
From 1 April 2024, employers will be able to calculate holidays again using the 12.07% accrual method and pay rolled up holiday pay. However, this will only apply to irregular hours workers such as zero-hour workers and part-year workers. See our previous soundbite for a more detailed summary of these changes.
National Minimum Wage Rises
Currently, workers aged 21 and 22 receive a lower rate of national minimum wage than those aged 23 and over. This band is being removed and with effect from 1 April 2024, the national living wage for those aged 21 and over will rise to £11.42. Details of all the new national minimum wage and national living wage rates can be found on the gov.uk website: https://www.gov.uk/national-minimum-wage-rates.
Proposed Changes
There are other legislative changes proposed for 2024 too including a new type of statutory leave for employees who have babies in neonatal care, a right for workers with unstable or unpredictable working hours to request a more predictable working pattern and a legal requirement for employers to be more proactive in order to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace.
What Employers Need To Do
With so many changes in the pipeline, employers should ensure that they review their policies and procedures, update or introduce new policies where necessary and train staff so that they are able to manage the new processes in place. We can assist with all of these tasks so please do not hesitate to contact us for further information.