Employment Law Update 2024

From 1 April 2024 the following rates applied:

23 and over: Current – £10.42, new – N/A
21 to 22: Current – £10.18, new 21 and over – £11.44
18 to 20: Current – £7.49, new – £8.60
Under 18: Current – £5.28, new – £6.40
Apprentice: Current – £5.28, new – £6.40

These are significant pay increases, reflecting steep inflation levels and ongoing cost of living increases. Further increases are set to come into force on 1 April 2025.

Statutory Maternity, Paternity, Adoption and shared Parental and Parental Bereavement pay has increased from £172.48 to £184.03 per week on 6 April 2024.

Additionally, changes were introduced on 6 April 2024 for statutory paternity leave under the Paternity Leave (Amendment) Regulations 2024. Employees taking statutory paternity leave (and those eligible for pay) can take their two weeks at any time within the first year after their child’s birth and can now split their two weeks entitlement into two separate one-week blocks. This is a welcome update from the previous rule of requiring the two weeks to be taken together during the first eight weeks after birth.

Previously, employees were required to give 15-weeks’ notice to their employer before taking leave. However, they are now only required to give employers 28 days’ notice for each week of leave. Please note, employees will still need to give notice of their upcoming entitlement 15 weeks before the expected date of birth.

From April 2024, statutory sick pay increased from £109.40 per week, to £116.75 per week. The Employments Rights Bill also proposes that statutory sick pay become payable from the first day of illness, rather than the current four (three days waiting and payment from day four). The Bill also proposes to remove the lower earnings threshold for statutory sick pay.

The increase in rate may have a knock-on effect on employers who offer enhanced or company sick pay schemes.

The Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Act was passed on 20 July 2023 and came into force on 6 April 2024. Key provisions in this act include:

• Employees no longer have to explain what effect their requested change may have on the employer and how any such effect might be dealt with.
• Employees are entitled to make two requests (instead of one) in any 12-month period.
• Employers are not able to refuse a request unless the employee has been consulted. Employers have to explain the reason for denying any request.
• Employers have to make a decision in two months (reduced from three months), subject to agreeing a longer decision period.

The right to request flexible working is now a ‘day one’ right, so removing the existing requirement for an employee to have at least 26 weeks’ continuous employment by the date of the request.

The Employment Rights Bill does not appear to introduce much of a change to the current position, only that employers may be required to give clearer reasons for refusing a request on the existing grounds, such as burden of additional cost or the inability to recruit additional staff.

The Carers Leave Act came into force on 6 April 2024.

This Act introduces a day one right for one week’s unpaid leave per year for employees that provide or arrange care for a dependant with a long-term care need.

Dependants include partners, children, parents, people living in the same house as the employees and people who reasonably rely on the employee.

This leave can be taken as partial or full days and can be taken flexibly at different times to suit an individual’s caring responsibilities.

Employers should be aware that employees are protected from dismissal or detriment due to taking this leave. If an employer dismisses an employee because of this leave, it will be an automatic unfair dismissal.

The Neonatal Care (Leave and Pay) Act was passed in May 2023 and is expected to come into force around April 2025.

This Act provides up to 12 weeks’ paid leave for parents of babies that need neonatal care. This will be accompanied by the right to pay (expected to be at the statutory prescribed rate or, if lower, 90% of the employee’s average weekly earnings) for employees with a parental or other personal relationship with children receiving neonatal care.

These rights are available to parents of babies who are admitted to hospital up to the age of 28 days and who are in hospital for seven full days or more.

The Employment Allocation of Tips Act was passed on May 2023 and came into force on 1 October 2024.

Under the Act employers have a duty to ensure that all qualifying tips are allocated fairly to workers (including agency workers) and that employers make payment in full no later than by the end of the month in which the tip was paid. Alternatively, if it is fair, an employer can pay the tips to an ‘independent tronc operator’ (a body acting independently of the employer) who will then allocate the tips to workers.

Employers are to have a written policy on how to deal with tips and are to keep a record of tips received and how they have been allocated.

The Government also introduced the Code of Practice on the fair and transparent distribution of tips. The Code of Practice can be introduced as evidence in an employment tribunal as it will be statutory, i.e. a mandatory code that employers must have regard to, and have legal effect under the Employment (Allocation of Tips) Act 2023.

The Protection from Redundancy (Pregnancy and Family Leave) Act was passed on 24 May 2023 and introduced (from 6 April 2024),  increased protection against redundancy for pregnant employees or those taking maternity leave.

Previously, in a redundancy process an employer had an obligation to offer those on maternity leave, adoption leave or shared parental leave suitable alternative employment (if it exists) as a priority over other employees provisionally selected for redundancy. Failure to do so being automatically unfair.

This Act expands the entitlement to be offered suitable alternative employment where a vacancy exists from notification of the pregnancy for a period up to 18 months after birth or adoption.

The Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act received Royal Assent on 26 October 2023 and came into force on 26 October 2024.

This Act introduces a new duty on employers to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of its employees during the course of their employment.

The Act also gives employment tribunals the power to uplift sexual harassment compensation by up to 25% where an employer is found to have breached the new duty to prevent sexual harassment.

For more detailed information about these changes, visit our sexual harassment in the workplace article.

The Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023 has superseded the Transport Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Bill 2022 – 2023.

This Act allows the Secretary of State to make Minimum Service Levels (MSLs) via regulations for strikes in ‘relevant services’ including health.

Where a strike is called in a service to which MSLs apply, the employer may, after consulting the union, give the union a ‘work notice’, identifying the workers that are required to work and what they are required to do to ensure MSLs are met during the strike.

The Act allows MSLs in certain sectors including fire, ambulance, and rail services during strikes. The government is considering using MSLs to protect patient safety during strikes and nurse and doctors could be covered by new regulations.

However, the Employment Rights Bill proposes to repeal the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023. It also seeks to introduce other reforms across trade unions and industrial action, such as reducing the statutory recognition requirement for a relevant bargaining unit and reducing the notice period of industrial action given to employer.

The Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act 2023 has abolished certain EU law relating to Working Time Regulations and TUPE. The Government has drafted regulations in order to fill the gap left after the repeal of relevant EU law.

The Employment Rights (Amendment, Revocation and Transitional Provision) Regulations 2023 covers holiday pay, TUPE and working times.  It sets out a new system of holiday accrual for irregular hours and part-year workers. The government has published guidance on the new holiday provisions.

The new provision on pay and carry forward of leave came into force on 1 January 2024.

Changes that apply to part year and irregular workers came into force from 1 April 2024 at the earliest, and for many, far later.

Rolled up holiday pay option applies to leave years starting on or after 1 April 2024.

Leave Years and the new rules:

• 1 April – 31 March leave year – new rules apply from 1 April 2024
• 1 January to 31 December leave year – new rules apply from 1 January 2025
• 31 March – 30 March leave year – new rules apply from 30 March 2025

This Act introduces further changes including:

• A basis for holiday accrual for irregular hours and part-year workers, based on 12.07% of the hours worked in the previous pay period.
• Simplifying record-keeping requirements to maintain the requirement to keep “adequate” records, but this doesn’t necessarily need to be a full record of daily working hours
• Restating in legislation the ability to ‘carry-over’ holiday in certain situations
• TUPE consultation policies for smaller businesses (those with fewer than 50 employees)

Employers should make sure they update their practices and policies to be in line with these changes including the carry-forward of leave.

A new statutory code of practice on dismissal and re-engagement (the “Code”) came into force on 18 July 2024.

The Code aims to ensure employers take all reasonable steps to exploring alternatives to fire and re-hire in meaningful consultation, with a view to reaching an agreed outcome with employees and/or their representatives. It provides practical guidance on avoiding, managing and resolving conflicts and disputes that may arise.

The Employment Rights Bill aims to further prevent exploitative use of fire and re-hire by making any such dismissal automatically unfair, unless an employer can meet strict criteria.

For more detailed information and support on dismissal and re-engagement read our new statutory guidance on fire and re-hire.