Recent and upcoming changes to employment law you need to know
Tools & Resources
In a nutshell…
- There were many changes to employment law announced during 2023 and continuing through 2024.
- Some new laws announced in 2023 were implemented in early 2024, such as the Carer’s Leave Act and Protection from Redundancy (Pregnancy and Family Leave) Act.
It has been a busy time for changes in employment law, with lots of further developments planned for later in 2024 and 2025. Here, UMi partner Croner reviews all of the changes that may impact your business and your employees, starting from 2023 onwards.
Click each heading to read the changes in employment law:
1
April 2023
- Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) is payable if an employee is sick for at least four days in a row.
- The Department of Work and Pensions has announced new rates for statutory maternity, paternity, adoption, parental bereavement, shared parental payments and statutory sick pay.
- The Lower Earnings Limit, the amount over which must be earned to qualify for many employment-related statutory payments, remained at £123.
- Updates to compensation limits, statutory guarantee pay and weekly redundancy payments.
- Government published response to consultation on ethnicity pay gap data.
- Acas published new guidance for employers on making reasonable adjustments for mental health in the workplace.
2
June 2023
- The Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act 2023 received Royal Assent. This act details a specific list of the retained EU laws that the Government intends to revoke.
- Other laws are to be amended and these will be announced via a series of stages. No major employment laws are to be revoked.
3
July 2023
- The Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023 received Royal Assent. No implementation date has been confirmed yet. This will require minimum service levels to be met in certain industries for strike action to be lawful.
4
September 2023
- Pensions (Extension of Automatic Enrolment) Act 2023 received Royal Assent on 18 September, 2023. Once implemented, this will lower the age at which eligible workers must be automatically enrolled into a pension scheme by their employer from 22 to 18.
5
January 2024
- Changes to working time and holiday. The requirement to keep records of daily working time is removed; effect of emergency Covid legislation on annual leave carry over ends; case law position on a weeks' pay, and annual leave carry over during sickness and statutory leave is committed to law.
6
February 2024
- Fines payable by employers who employ illegal workers will increase. The fine for a first breach increases to £45,000 per illegal worker. For repeated breaches the fine will increase to £60,000.
7
April 2024
- National Living Wage threshold will be lowered to include 21-year-olds and the rate will be £11.44 per hour. The rate for those aged 18-20 will be £8.60, and the rate for both those over school age but not yet 18 and apprentices will be £6.40.
- Introduction of a new method to calculate holiday entitlement for irregular hours workers and part year workers. Rolled up holiday pay will also be lawful again.
- Under the Carer’s Leave Act 2023, employees with defined caring responsibilities will have a right to take up to one working week of unpaid leave per 12 months in relation to those responsibilities.
- Qualifying employees will, via the Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Act 2023, be able to make a flexible working request from the first day of employment. Other changes to the system, including an increase to two requests per year and a requirement to deal with requests within two months rather than three months, are also expected to take place at the same time.
- Under the Protection from Redundancy (Pregnancy and Family Leave) Act 2023, pregnant employees have enhanced rights when faced with redundancy which continue until 18 months after the birth. The enhanced treatment will also apply to adoption and shared parental leave arrangements.
- Under the Paternity Leave (Amendment) Regulations 2024, the paternity leave system will become more flexible. Employees will be able to take two separate weeks of leave within a year of the birth/adoption and will only need to give 28 days’ notice of taking leave.
- Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) will increase to £116.75 per week; Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) and other family leave payments including statutory paternity pay etc will increase to £184.03 per week.
- The maximum week’s pay for redundancy pay purposes increases to £700 per week; statutory guarantee pay increases to £38 per day and maximum unfair dismissal compensatory award increases to £115,115.
8
July 2024
- Changes to the transfer of undertakings process. The requirement to consult with elected representatives, where none exist, on a transfer for businesses with fewer than 50 employees, and for businesses of any size when a transfer affects fewer than 10 employees, will be removed.
- Hospitality, leisure and service employers, under the Employment (Allocation of Tips) Act 2023, will be required to fairly allocate tips to staff in line with a statutory code of practice, and have a policy explaining allocation.
9
Summer 2024
- A new statutory code of practice on "fire and re hire" will be introduced. It will set out the expected procedure for employers to follow when contemplating dismissals for employees who do not agree to changes to their terms and conditions.
10
October 2024
- Under the Neonatal Care (Leave and Pay) Act 2023, parents of babies who are admitted to hospital before 28 days old and for at least one week will get a maximum of 12 weeks leave, paid at the statutory rate, in addition to maternity/paternity leave.
- A duty requiring employers to proactively prevent sexual harassment will be introduced. Employers will have to take “reasonable steps” to prevent sexual harassment in their organisation.
11
Autumn 2024
- Workers with unpredictable working hours, or a fixed term contract of less than 12 months, will have a right to request a more stable and predictable contract after 26 weeks' service.
12
Upcoming proposed changes (no dates confirmed)
- Government has proposed a new law that will limit the length of non-compete clauses to a maximum of three months.
- There are discussions to put forward a legislation that aims to ensure part-time workers are pro rata in accordance with the actual time spent working.
- Further updates to GDPR, discussions to replace with a ‘common sense’ data protection system.
- Businesses with less than 500 employees will become exempt from reporting requirements and other select regulations in the future.
- Implementation of The Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act 2023.
- There will be changes to working time regulations and TUPE.
- Continuity of service law will come into place. This will increase the minimum break to end employment from one week to four weeks.
- Confidentiality clauses will be required to set out their limitations.
- Confidentiality clauses that prevent disclosures to police, regulated health or legal professions will be prohibited.
As you can see, there are plenty of changes to be implemented by the end of the year, potentially with more to come.
Next steps...
- Contact Croner’s expert advisers with any queries you may have on how these changes can impact your business – Sat Nav users get 15% off human resources, health and safety and employment law support by calling Croner on 0844 561 8133 and quoting UMi discount code CGL28333.
- Learn more about your responsibilities as an employer in our recruitment and people bundle.