Employment law changes update
EMPLOYMENT-RELATED PAYMENTS
From 1 April, the National Living Wage will apply to workers over 21 (as opposed to those over 23) and will increase from £10.42 to £11.44 an hour. for those aged 18-20, the NMW will increase from £7.49 to £8.60. From 6 April, compensation for unfair dismissal will increase to the lower of £115,115 (up from £105, 707) or one year’s pay. The limit on a week’s pay used to calculate statutory redundancy payment or unfair dismissal basic award will increase from £643 to £700. The Vento Guidelines (which give ranges for injury to feelings awards in discrimination cases, depending on severity) for claims presented on or after 6 April, are:
A lower band of £1,200 to £11,700 (less serious cases)
A middle band of £11,700 to £35,200 (cases that do not merit an award in the upper band)
An upper band of £35,200 to £58,700 (the most serious cases), with the most exceptional cases capable of exceeding £58,700.
On 8 April, statutory maternity, paternity, adoption, shared parental and parental bereavement pay will increase from £172.48 to £184.03 per week and Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) from £109.40 to £116.75 a week.
ANNUAL LEAVE AND HOLIDAY PAY
From 1 January, workers are able to carry forward up to 28 days’ leave if they have not been able to take it because they have been on family leave (maternity, paternity, adoption, shared parental) or where an employer has not given them a reasonable opportunity to take that holiday or failed to warn them they could lose it if they do not take it. A worker that is off sick can carry over a maximum of 20 days’ holiday to be used over the following 18 months.
Also from 1 January, statutory legislation now reflects case law in relation to the components which must be included when calculating a worker’s holiday pay. For the first four weeks (for full-, part- year and irregular hours workers) the normal rate of pay should include commission, overtime and/or other payments relating to seniority/professional qualifications. For the remaining 1.6 weeks, holiday pay is at the worker’s basic rate.
From 1 April, how holiday is calculated for ‘part-year’ (for example teachers or teaching assistants or seasonal agricultural workers) and ‘irregular hours’ workers (for example those on zero hours contracts) has changed and will be in hours, not weeks. Holiday entitlement for these workers will be calculated as 12.07% of actual hours worked in a pay period (for example, every week or month). The 12.07% figure is based on the fact that all workers are entitled to a statutory minimum of 5.6 weeks’ leave. This means that a worker’s total working weeks in a year is 46.4 (52 weeks minus 5.6 weeks of leave). 12.07% of 46.4 is 5.6. An irregular hour or part-year worker may be entitled to more than this 5.6 week minimum. To find the relevant percentage for these workers, you would need to do the following calculation: (total holiday entitlement ÷ remaining working weeks in the year) x 100.
Employers will now have the option to pay part-year or irregular hours workers this holiday pay rolled-up with their normal pay. This means that employers include an additional amount within every pay slip to cover a worker’s holiday pay, instead of paying for holiday when a worker actually takes leave. An agency worker who is a ‘worker’ but not an ‘irregular hours worker’ or a ‘part-year worker’, will continue to accrue leave at one twelfth of their entitlement at the start of each month during their first year of employment, as will workers who are not irregular hours or part-year workers.
It is important to note that these new rules only apply to leave years beginning on or after 1 April 2024. So, for an employer that runs their leave years from 1 January to 31 December, the rules will not have an effect until 1 January 2025.
CARERS LEAVE
New leave rights for carers come into force from 6 April, whereby employees can apply for up to one week of unpaid carer’s leave in any 12-month period. Up until now, carers have had no such leave and have had to use flexible working requests, parental or even annual leave. This is a Day 1 right and applies to employees who are the primary caregiver of a dependant with a long-term care need. The leave can be taken in consecutive or non-consecutive half-days or full days. The request must be in writing and the notice be twice the amount of leave requested or three days, whichever is longer.
Employers can postpone a request if the operation of the business would be unduly disrupted but in so doing, must give notice of the postponement before the leave was due to begin. The employer must then allow the leave to be taken within one month of the start date of the leave originally requested. Employees are protected from detriment and dismissal because they take or seek to take carer’s leave or the employer believes they are likely to do so and an employee can take their case to the employment tribunal if the employer unreasonably postpones a period of leave or prevents them from taking it when they are eligible.
PATERNITY LEAVE
Where the expected week of childbirth falls on or after 6 April, employees will be able to take their two-week paternity leave entitlement as two separate blocks of one week (rather than having to take just one week in total or two consecutive weeks). The leave can be taken at any point in the first year after the birth or adoption of their child rather than having to take it in the 56 days following the birth. They only need to give 28 days’ notice of their intention to take paternity leave instead of 15 weeks before the expected week of childbirth.
REDUNDANCY RULES
UK redundancy rules currently give priority protection to employees on maternity, adoption and shared parental leave by first offering them a suitable alternative vacancy, if one is available. From 6 April, the period of priority protection will extend to 18 months (from 12 months) and will also apply to pregnant employees. So, protection will run from the day a woman notifies her employer that she is pregnant to the date she starts maternity leave. For those who lose their baby before 24 weeks, protection is from the moment of informing of pregnancy to two weeks after pregnancy ends (note those whose pregnancy ends after 24 weeks are entitled to maternity leave).
For maternity, adoption and shared parental leave, the priority protection extends from 12 months to 18 months from the birth or adoption of the child, meaning that a woman or parent returning to work after 12 months’ leave is entitled to be offered a suitable alternative vacancy in a redundancy situation for a further six months once back at work. The new rules apply to an employee notifying an employer of a pregnancy on or after 6 April and in the case of maternity, adoption or shared parental leave situation, where the statutory period of leave ends on or after 6 April.
FLEXIBLE WORKING
New rules will apply to flexible working arrangements from 6 April and apply to applications made on or after that date. At the moment, only employees who have been working for the employer for 26 weeks can make requests for flexible working (to include part-time, compressed time, flexi-time or adjusting start and finish times). This will now become a Day 1 right. An employee can make two (not one) request every 12 months. In addition, the employer must respond in two (instead of three) months and an employee will no longer have to explain or describe how the requested arrangements will work or affect the employer. Also new is the fact that the employer must consult with the employee if they intend to reject the request – the idea being that a dialogue is opened up that could help resolve the matter.