What does 2024 hold for UK employers?

The UK Government's attention is likely to be focused on a general election for much of this year, with the date still a matter of speculation. It will be interesting to see what both the main political parties propose and how much of the Labour Party's Employment Rights Green Paper finds its way into an election manifesto, in particular its proposal that key employment rights, including the right not to be unfairly dismissed, should be applicable from the start of employment. This proposal is notably absent from the Labour Party's 17 January 2024 publication Let's Get Britain's Future Back. 

Meanwhile the current Government has now implemented several measures that will require some forward planning by employers. All of these are coming into effect on 6 April 2024.

Flexible working 

As we have reported previously, the right to request flexible working will become a right exercisable from day one of employment. ACAS has now published its revised Code of Practice on requests for flexible working in anticipation of the change. The Code is a statutory code and will therefore be taken into account by employment tribunals when dealing with disputes about the revised right.

Although flexible working has become an established feature of many workplaces since the Covid-19 pandemic, this day one right will apply to all employees, irrespective of their employer's current policy on hybrid or flexible working. Employers may find that the change in the law encourages job applicants to enquire about flexible working options at an early stage – potentially even before a formal job offer has been made.

Maternity Leave, Adoption Leave and Shared Parental Leave

New rules will extend the existing protections available in redundancy situations to employees on maternity, adoption or shared parental leave for a period of six months after the leave has ended. This means that employees returning from leave will have priority in the allocation of alternative roles in redundancy situations for an additional six month period. The amendments will apply to those whose periods of leave end on or after 6 April 2024.

Changes to paternity leave

The Government is proposing to amend the rules on statutory paternity leave to provide considerably more flexibility to fathers and partners, including by allowing them to take their leave as two separate one-week blocks at any time in the first year after the birth or adoption of the child. The amendments will apply to babies whose expected week of birth begins after 6 April 2024, and to children whose expected date of placement for adoption, or expected date of entry into Great Britain for adoption, is on or after 6 April 2024. Read more here.

Carers' Leave

With effect from 6 April employees who are caring for a dependant with a long-term care need will have a new statutory entitlement to one week of flexible unpaid leave per year. This is in addition to the current legislation which allows employees time off for dependants in an emergency, a dependant being a close family member or someone who depends on the employee requesting leave.   

Other changes 

Holiday pay

The government has published new guidance on the holiday pay and entitlement reforms that have been in place since 1 January 2024. The guidance will be of particular interest to those who employ people on a casual or zero hours basis. The guidance covers the meaning of an 'irregular hours worker' and a part-year worker, holiday entitlement for these workers, carry-over of leave and holiday pay calculations and contains a number of worked examples.

And finally…

On 15 December 2023, as part of the government's proposals for children's social care reform, the Department for Education published Kinship carers in the workplace: guidance for employers. Kinship care (sometimes known as 'family and friends care') involves a child being raised in the care of a family member, or family friend, who is not their parent (2021 Census data indicates that there are 132,000 children in England in such arrangements). The guidance sets out  existing statutory entitlements available to kinship carers and how employers can take further steps to support kinship carers, including by enabling them to work more flexibly.