PLANNING AHEAD FOR LEGISLATION CHANGES
2024 is set to be a busy year with legislative changes taking effect
Covid holiday carry-over ends. In 2020 the emergency rules on annual leave were implemented. If it was not reasonably practicable for workers to take their leave due to the effects of Covid, workers could carry over 4 weeks of their leave into the next 2 leave years. From 1 January 2024, this right will end. Any employees who have accrued and untaken “Covid carry over leave” by that date have until 31 March 2024 to use it.
Do ask if you need a template letter to give to employees who are affected by this
For rules on holiday carry-over, the status quo is maintained. There will continue to be a right of carry-over in the following situations:
Where a worker was unable to take holiday due to being on maternity leave or other family-friendly leave, they can carry over 5.6 weeks to the following leave year
Where a worker was unable to take holiday due to sickness, they can carry over 4 weeks of leave for 18 months after the end of the leave year in which the leave was accrued
Legislation will be updated from 1st January 2024 to state that for leave years starting on or after 1 April 2024 employers can lawfully pro-rata holiday entitlement for part-year and irregular hours workers, and if they want to do so, rolled-up holiday pay can be used again, but only for these types of workers.
Remember that whilst the law will be updated in January, employers cannot actually make any changes until their next leave year starting on or after 1 April 2024
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Carer's Leave Regulations
The Carer’s Leave Regulations 2024 have been laid before Parliament. They set out the statutory scheme under which employees can apply for up to one week of unpaid carer’s leave, in any 12-month period.
Key features are:
The right is a Day One employment right.
The right applies to employees who have a dependant with a long-term care need and those who want to be absent from work to provide or arrange care for that dependant.
Requests can be in consecutive, or non-consecutive, half-days or full days.
Employees must give notice, in writing, of their intention to take carer’s leave – confirming their entitlement to take it and giving at least twice the amount of notice than the period of leave requested.
Employers can postpone a request if the operation of the business would be unduly disrupted. In these circumstances, the employer must give notice of the postponement before the leave was due to begin and must explain why the postponement is necessary. The employer must then allow the leave to be taken within one month of the start-date of the leave originally requested. Rescheduling the leave should be done in consultation with the employee.
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).
The Regulations are due to come into force on 6 April 2024.
Protection from Redundancy: Pregnancy and Family leave
The Maternity Leave, Adoption Leave and Shared Parental Leave (Amendment) Regulations 2024 have been laid before Parliament, extending the period of special protection from redundancy for employees who are on maternity leave, adoption leave or those on shared parental leave.
Currently, regulation 10 of the Maternity and Parental Leave Regulations 1999 provides those parents on maternity leave, adoption leave or shared parental leave should be offered first refusal of any suitable alternative employment which may be available in a redundancy situation.
Under the Act, this protection is extended as follows:
For maternity – the protected period will cover pregnancy, alongside 18 months from the first day of the estimated week of childbirth. The protected period can be changed to cover 18 months from the exact date of birth if the employee gives the employer notice of this date prior to the end of maternity leave.
For adoption – the protected period will cover 18 months from placement for adoption.
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 is otherwise protected under 1. or 2. above.
The extension to the protected period to cover pregnancy applies where the employer is informed of the pregnancy on, or after, 6 April 2024.
The extension of the protected period, to cover a period of time after leave has been taken, will apply to any maternity and adoption leave ending on, or after, 6 April 2024. This will also apply to any shared parental leave starting on, or after, 6 April 2024
The Regulations remain draft only at this present time and may be subject to change.