Overview of forthcoming employment legislation changes in April

April is a month of many employment law changes which organisations need to be aware of and plan for. Below is an overview of forthcoming legislative changes, along with details of the increases in various statutory payments.

Flexible working

Changes to flexible working will apply from the 6th April 2024, meaning that employees will no longer need to have at least 26 weeks' service to be entitled to make a flexible working request. In addition to the right to request to work flexibly becoming a day one right, there are other changes to flexible working which we anticipate coming into effect on the 6th April 2024, but at the time of writing, the Regulations needed to bring these changes into force have not yet been produced. The proposed changes are that employees will be entitled to make two requests (instead of one) in any 12-month period and employers will have to respond to a request within two months (reduced from three months). Employers must also consult with employees before refusing a request and when making a request an employee will no longer have to explain what effect, if any, they think that their request would have on the employer. The measures will be supported by an updated ACAS statutory Code of Practice.

Carers Leave

There will be a new statutory day one right to unpaid carer's leave for employees in England, Scotland and Wales from the 6th April 2024. An employee who has a dependant with a long-term care need and want to be absent from work to provide or arrange care for that dependant may take one week's unpaid leave to provide or arrange care in a rolling 12 month period. A person is a dependant for the purposes of carer's leave if they are a spouse, civil partner, child or parent of the employee or live in the same household as the employee, otherwise than by reason of being the employee's border, employee, lodger or tenant, or reasonably rely on the employee to provide or arrange care. A dependant has a "long term care need" for these purposes if they have an illness or injury (whether physical or mental) that requires, or is likely to require, care for more than three months, they have a disability for the purposes of the Equality Act 2010 or they require care for a reason connected with their old age.

The leave may be taken in either individual days or half days, up to a block of one week. The required notice period is either twice as many days as the period of leave required, or three days, whichever is greater. The notice does not need to be in writing and an employer cannot require evidence in relation to the request before granting the leave. An employer cannot decline a request altogether but may postpone carer's leave where certain criteria are met.

Paternity leave

The changes to paternity leave will take effect in relation to children whose expected week of childbirth is after the 6th April 2024 and children whose expected date for placement for adoption or expected date of entry into Great Britain for adoption is on or after the 6th April 2024. The changes will allow fathers and partners to take their leave and pay as two non-consecutive blocks of one week, rather than only in one block of either one or two weeks. The leave can be taken at any point in the first year after the birth or adoption of their child and the notice period required for each period of leave will be shortened to 28 days' notice.

Changes to redundancy protection for those who are pregnant or on maternity leave, shared parental leave or adoption leave.

The Protection from Redundancy (Pregnancy and Family Leave) Act 2023 extends the right to priority for suitable alternative employment in a redundancy situation. For pregnancy and maternity the protected period applies from the point an employee notifies their employer they are pregnant and until 18 months after the child's estimated week of childbirth, or the exact birth date of the child if the employee gives the employer notice of this date. For adoption the protected period will cover 18 months from placement for adoption, and for shared parental leave the protected period will cover 18 months from birth, provided that the parent has taken a period of at least 6 consecutive weeks of shared parental leave. This protection will not apply if the employee already has protection either because of pregnancy/maternity or adoption provisions. The redundancy protection afforded means that these employees have the right to be offered suitable alternative employment in a redundancy situation.

Holidays for irregular hours and part year workers

For holiday years starting on or after the 1st April 2024 there will be a new method of calculating holiday entitlement for irregular hours and part-year workers. The terms "irregular hours" and "part year worker" are defined in new Regulations, and include workers whose hours are irregular (such as casual workers and some agency workers), and workers who under their contract have periods in the year of at least one week where they do not work and are not paid, such as hourly paid, term time workers. For these workers, their holiday entitlement will be calculated in hours rather than weeks and will accrue on the last day of each pay period at the rate of 12.07% of the actual hours worked in that pay period. Employers will be able to chose from two systems of holiday pay - this can be calculated by working out the average amount of weekly pay over the previous 52 weeks or pay rolled up holiday pay. Rolled up holiday pay would be an uplift of 12.07% of the worker's remuneration for work done in each pay period.

Increases to the National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage

There will be a change in the rates of National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage to be paid for the pay period beginning on or after the 1st April 2024. The new rates are listed below. It is worth noting that the age at which people qualify for the National Living Wage has been lowered from 23 to 21 years old.

Aged 21 and above (National Living Wage rate) £11.44

Aged 18 to 20 inclusive £8.60

Aged under 18 (but above compulsory school leaving age) £6.40

Apprentice rate £6.40

Statutory Maternity, Paternity, Adoption, Shared Parental and Parental Bereavement Pay increases

The Government has increased the rates of statutory pay which will be effective from the 7th April 2024. The rate for Statutory Sick Pay increases to £116.75 a week for employees working five qualifying days a week.

The rates of Statutory Maternity Pay and Statutory Adoption Pay (after the first 6 weeks) will be £186.03 per week or 90% of the employee's average weekly earnings, whichever is lower. The rate for the first 6 weeks remains at 90% of the employee's average weekly earnings. Statutory Paternity Pay, Statutory Shared Parental Pay and Statutory Parental Bereavement Pay will all be £184.03 or 90% of the employee's average weekly earnings, whichever is lower.

Employment Tribunal compensation limits

The statutory cap on a week's pay for the purposes of calculating the basic award and statutory redundancy pay, and the maximum compensatory award for unfair dismissal will increase where the effective date of termination falls on or after 6th April 2024 as follows.

• The limit on a week's pay increases from £643 to £700.

• The maximum compensatory award for unfair dismissal will increase from £105,707 to £115,115.

• The minimum basic award for certain unfair dismissals (including health and safety dismissals) increased from £7,836 to £8,533.

Future changes

These significant changes mean that organisations need to ensure that their policies and procedures are amended to reflect these changes. Line managers also need to be trained so they understand how to deal with any requests which may be made under the new or amended legislation. There are also many changes on the horizon that businesses need to prepare for, such as how tips and gratuities are dealt with, the statutory code of practice on "fire and re-hire" and the proactive duty on employers to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace.

The information in this document is current as of 19 March 2024. We endeavor to keep information accurate, but please be aware that it may be subject to change.