The Government have announced employment legislation that is due to come into force during 2024. The key new legislation all come under the heading of ‘family friendly’ policies Since covid and the increase in hybrid working we are seeing more formal request for leave or change in working patterns connected family matters and it is important that employers understand their statutory responsibilities when dealing with requests from employees.
Statutory Carer’s leave (April 2024)
The new law gives your employees the right to take statutory carer’s leave. This will be a right that eligible employees have from their first day on the job.
Employees will qualify for statutory carer’s leave if they care for a dependent with a long-term care need. And if any of your employees are eligible, they’ll be able to take a maximum of one week of unpaid leave a year to look after someone who relies on them for care.
They’ll be able to take this leave flexibly but will have to give a minimum amount of notice. This is will either be double the amount of time they’ve requested to take or three days – whichever option is longer.
You also won’t be able to refuse a carer’s leave request but will be able to postpone if the leave would seriously disrupt your business operations.
Statutory neonatal care leave – expected in October 2024
Statutory leave for parents of (or those who have a responsibility for) babies in neonatal care.
It means employees who have babies in neonatal care will be able to have more time off work, on top of maternity and paternity leave. This will be a right they have from day one on the job.
Employees will only be able to get a maximum of 12 weeks of neonatal leave. And if your employee is eligible, you’ll also need to pay them for this leave (which will be the same rate you would pay for maternity pay).
New rules around flexible working requests – starting from April 2024
From 6th April, the government will grant employees a day one right to make a flexible working request. Previously, they could only make one flexible working request a year – and they had to have worked for you for 26 weeks before they could do this.
There will be other new rules around flexible working requests although the timing for the introduction of these has yet to be announced. Under these new rules, employees will be able to make two requests in a year. They will also no longer have to explain the effect they think this change in working might have on you.
A new right to request a more predictable working pattern – expected in September 2024
This is a brand new right for certain workers. It means that workers with unstable or unpredictable working hours will have a legal right to ask for more predictable working patterns.
This includes zero hour workers, agency workers, employees and those on fixed term contracts lasting less than one year.
We expect that eligible workers will be able to ask for more predictable hours once they have 26 weeks of service or more. We also expect that you will have to accept any requests unless you have a legal reason to refuse.
Extended legal protection from redundancy for pregnant staff – coming in April 2024
The new Worker Protection Act is scheduled for October 2024. It will mean that you will need to take reasonable steps to help prevent sexual harassment in your workplace by law.
Currently, you are legally liable if your employee makes a claim for harassment and you can’t show that you did anything to help prevent it. And yet, there’s no legal requirement to take proactive steps to prevent harassment (like having a policy or giving training).
But under this new law your business will have to take active steps to prevent harassment. That’s whether an incident has happened or not.
Your employees will also be able to make official complaints to the Equality and Human Rights commission at any point if they see you haven’t taken any preventative steps.
Meaning, you may have to prove that you do take steps even when there isn’t a claim or allegation against you.
There’s a ban on withholding tips from workers – July 2024
If you work in the hospitality industry, this one is particularly relevant for you. Once this law is in place, you will not be able to keep any money staff receive as tips. You will also need to have a written policy on how you intend to fairly allocate tips to workers. This will mean setting up a formal tronc system if you do not already have this in place.
Calculating holiday pay and leave – for leave years starting on or after April 2024
Currently, you have to give holiday pay at the time that your staff take annual leave. You’re not allowed to include holiday pay in your worker’s hourly rate (also known as giving “rolled-up holiday pay”).
But now the government has confirmed that businesses will be able to provide rolled up holiday pay again – but only for staff who work irregular hours, like zero-hour workers and part-year workers.
This means you’ll be able to calculate annual leave for irregular hour workers using the 12.07% accrual method (which has previously been banned). This will be a welcome reversal of a law that causes headaches for many small businesses.