As well as the annual increases to national minimum wage rates, compensation limits and statutory payments, a number of other important employment law changes come into effect in April 2024. Whether you are a business wanting to ensure that you are fully briefed and prepared for these changes, or an employee unsure of your current rights, read our summary of the changes below!
As a firm made up almost entirely of working parents, we at Lionshead Law are highly knowledgeable about family leave and flexible working entitlements and have a proven track record of assisting employer clients to understand and comply with their legal obligations and employee clients in successfully enforcing their rights. Please contact us if you are an employer needing to update your current policies and procedures to ensure they are legally compliant, or if you are an employee whose statutory rights have been infringed, or if you have been punished in any way for exercising your rights to statutory leave or to request flexible working arrangements.
- Changes to Flexible Working
The Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Act 2023 and Flexible Working (Amendment) Regulations 2023 SI 2023/1328 come into force on 6 April 2024. The key changes they introduce are that for requests submitted on or after 6 April 2024:
- An employee no longer has to have 26 weeks’ continuous service to be eligible to request flexible working. The right to request flexible working will now become a day one right.
- Those making flexible working requests are no longer required to explain what effect, if any, their requested change would have on the employer and how such effect may be dealt with.
- The previous limitation of making one request in any 12-month period is increased to two requests in any 12-month period. In determining the number of requests an employee has made during a 12-month period, a request made before 6 April 2024 will be included.
- The employer can no longer refuse a flexible-working request unless the employee has been consulted first.
- The time limit for an employer to notify the employee of its decision (including the decision on any appeal) is reduced from 3 to 2 months (although parties can agree a longer period).
- ACAS has introduced a new Code of Practice for requests on flexible working with effect from 6 April 2024 to reflect these latest changes and to support employers and employees with the amended scheme. A failure to follow the Code does not in itself make an employer liable to legal proceedings but a Tribunal can take the Code’s requirements into account when considering whether an employer has complied with its legal obligations.
- Changes to Paternity Leave
The Parental Leave (Amendment) Regulations 2024 SI 2024/329 came into force on 8 March 2024 and introduced the following changes to statutory paternity leave in relation to those whose expected week of childbirth begins after 6 April 2024 or who are expecting a child to be placed with them for adoption (or whose expected date of entry into Great Britain for adoption) is on or after 6 April 2024:
- Fathers and partners are now allowed to take their leave and pay as two non-consecutive blocks of one week rather than only in one block of one or two weeks.
- The period during which fathers/partners can take paternity leave has been extended from within 8 weeks of birth or adoption to any point within the first year of birth or adoption.
- The notice period required for each period of paternity leave and pay is reduced from 15 weeks to 28 days’ notice prior to each period of leave[1].
- A father or partner can vary an initial notice to take paternity leave by giving 28 days’ notice of the variation, enabling greater flexibility to change planned dates for paternity leave at a later stage.
- Introduction of Carer’s Leave
The Carer’s Leave Regulations 2024 SI 2024/251 came into force on 6 April 2024 and introduce a statutory right for employees who have a dependant with a long-term care need to take one week’s unpaid leave to provide or arrange care in each rolling 12-month period. Key features of the scheme are:
- The leave is a day-one right, which means there is no minimum service requirement to qualify to exercise the right.
(In cases of domestic adoption, the notice period for taking paternity leave remains within 7 days of the adopter receiving notice of having been matched with a child.)
- A dependant is a spouse, civil partner, child or parent of the employee or someone living in the same household as the employee, other than as the employee’s boarder, employee, lodger or tenant, or who reasonably relies on the employee to provide care.
- A “long-term care need” means the dependant:
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- has an illness or injury (physical or mental) that requires, or is likely to require care for more than 3 months;
- has a disability for the purposes of the Equality Act 2010; or
- requires care for a reason connected with their old age.
- Carer’s leave may be taken in either individual days or half days, up to a block of one week. The days of leave need not be taken on consecutive days.
- The required notice period is either twice as many days as the period of leave required, or 3 days, whichever is longer.
- An employer cannot decline a request altogether but can postpone granting carer’s leave if it reasonably considers that the operation of the business would be unduly disrupted if it allowed the leave during the requested period.
- As with other statutory leave rights, employers cannot penalise employees for exercising their right to take carer’s leave. Dismissal of an employee for taking carer’s leave will be automatically unfair.
- Employees taking carer’s leave are entitled to return to the same job they were doing immediately before they took carer’s leave.
N.B. The right to take unpaid carer’s leave is distinct from the right to take unpaid time off for dependants.
- Additional redundancy protection during pregnancy and for those returning from maternity, adoption or shared parental leave
With effect from 6 April 2024, the Maternity Leave, Adoption Leave and Shared Parental Leave (Amendment) Regulations 2024 c SI 2024/264 extend additional redundancy protections as follows:
- Whereas previously the right to be offered suitable alternative vacancies in priority to other potentially redundant employees in a redundancy situation applied only to employees who were on maternity leave, adoption leave or shared parental leave, this protected period is being extended to include:
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- An employee’s pregnancy, from the date the employer is informed of pregnancy;
- 18 months after the expected week of childbirth or actual date of birth; and
- In adoption cases, 18 months from the child’s placement for adoption or date of entry into Great Britain.
- The extended protection will apply:
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- where the employee notifies her employer of her pregnancy on or after 6 April 2024;
- to maternity and adoption leave ending on or after 6 April 2024; and
- to a period of six consecutive weeks’ shared parental leave starting on or after 6 April 2024.
- Other changes coming into effect in April 2024
- New annual leave rules relating to irregular hours and part-time workers
See our summary of the changes introduced by the Employment Rights (Amendment, Revocation and Transitional Provision) Regulations 2023 SI 2023/1426 and which apply in respect of leave years starting on or after 1 April 2024.
- Increases to the National Minimum Wage
With effect from 1 April 2024, the National Minimum Wage (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2024 SI 2024/432:
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- extend the application of the National Living Wage (“NLW”) from workers aged 23 and over to workers aged 21 and over
- increase the NLW from £10.42 to £11.44 per hour
- increase the National Minimum Wage (“NMW”) for 18-20 year olds from £7.49 to £8.60 per hour
- increase the NMW for 16-17 year olds from £5.28 to £6.40 per hour
- increase the apprentice rate from £5.28 to £6.40 per hour.
- Increases to statutory payments
The following increases to statutory payments will come into effect:
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- from 6 April 2024, statutory sick pay will increase from £109.40 to £116.75 per week
- from 7 April 2024, statutory maternity pay, adoption pay, paternity pay, shared parental leave and bereavement pay increase from £172.48 to £184.03 per week (or 90% of the employee’s average weekly earnings, if lower). The same increase applies to maternity allowance from 8 April 2024.
- Increases to statutory compensation limits
Statutory compensation limits for breach of certain employment rights will increase on 6 April 2024, including:
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- The amount of a week’s pay used for calculating both the basic award for unfair dismissal and statutory redundancy pay will increase from £643 to £700.
- The cap on the compensatory award for unfair dismissal will increase from £105,707 to £115,115.
- Increases to injury to feelings awards
The Vento bands for injury to feelings compensation shall be increased for claims presented on or after 6 April 2024 to:
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- £1,200 – £11,700 for lower band cases (from £1,100 – £11,200)
- £11,700 – £35,200 for middle band cases (from £11,200 – £33,700)
- £35,200 – £58,700 for upper band cases (from £33,700 to £56,200).
The most exceptional cases will potentially be capable of exceeding £58,700.