2024 Employment Law Updates
The new year also brings new changes to employment law. All businesses need to be aware of how these changes will impact how they operate this year. Yet, employment law changes can be crowded with legalese and difficult to navigate so we’ve put together this guide for the key 2024 employment law updates that every employer needs to know.
We’ve also run a free Lunch and Learn session to cover these changes and you can find the video for the session below.
Employment Law Updates
The 2024 employment law changes are either coming into force on 1 April 2024 or later in the year. We’ve outlined when these changes are happening in each update below. It is a good idea to update your employee contracts, policies and handbooks to reflect these changes.
Holiday pay and entitlement reforms
The way your employees accrue holiday is going to change from 1 April 2024. Or as our HR expert, Natalie Cutler explains in the video below, it’s returning to the original way of working out how much holiday an employee has accrued. The aim is to simplify the calculations.
If you have employees who work irregular hours for part of the year, their entitlement will be 12.07% of the hours they work in a pay period, up to a maximum of 5.6 weeks, or higher if you give contractual in addition to statutory holiday.
A pay period can be weekly, monthly or any other time-period that you use.
Although, this only applies when your holiday period starts on or after 1 April 2024. If your holiday period began on 1 January 2024 then it will apply next year.
Carryover of annual leave
Workers can normally carry over a maximum of eight days into the next leave year, with the agreement of their employer. In practice, most employers cap this at five days and require their workers to take this within the leave year.
However, if someone is unable to take all of their statutory holiday entitlement because of maternity leave or other family-related leave, then they are entitled to carry forward up to 28 days’ leave into the following leave year.
If someone cannot take all of their statutory leave and work regular hours year-round, then they can carry forward up to 20 days of leave to the following year. This needs to be taken by the end of 18 months from the end of the leave year in which it was accrued.
Carryover and coronavirus
From 1 January 2024, workers can no longer accrue Covid carryover leave.
If your employee accrued leave during the covid-pandemic they need to take this before 31 March 2024 or they will lose it. If they leave their job before this date, they can be paid for any leave accrued.
Anyone whose employment is terminated on or before 31 March 2024 can claim pay in lieu of any remaining entitlement they couldn’t take due to coronavirus.
Changes to the National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage
The Government are increasing the national minimum wage from 1 April 2024. This increase is great for younger workers. If you pay staff minimum wage, you need to account for this in your cash flow. It’s also worth reviewing pay across the board, particularly for employees and workers who are slightly above minimum wage to make sure that the pay differential is still in place between different roles in the business.
Use this as an opportunity to review your pay across the company.
Illegal Workers
There are changes to the fines levied on companies for hiring illegal workers.
First breach increase from £15,000 to £45,000 per illegal worker
Repeated breaches increase from £20,000 up to £60,000 per illegal worker.
These are significant increases and risks for businesses so it’s essential that employers do their due diligence. Check that every employee has the right to work in the UK and keep a record of their documents. Take care over visas and if you’re unsure, ask. You should be recording and tracking expiry dates of visas so you are aware of when these run out and don’t get caught out.
You also need to be aware that the salary minimum threshold for new skilled worker visas is due to rise from £26,200 to £38,700 per annum. This change will come into force on 4 April 2024.
Carer’s Leave
From 6 April 2024, carer’s will be entitled to one week of unpaid leave from day one. This is estimated to impact around five million people in the UK who are balancing unpaid care with their jobs.
It’s important to note that this doesn’t just apply to families. Anyone who is offering unpaid care will be entitled to this leave. That includes people who support those within their communities.
Make sure you update contracts and handbooks to reflect this change.
Flexible Working
Working parents across the country have been waiting for this 2024 employment law update, which comes into force on 6 April.
Employees have a right to request flexible working from day one - not only parents but all employees. They can make two requests per year and no longer have to explain the impact on their employer.
As an employer, you will need to consult with your employee and you have two months to respond to requests.
Redundancy and family-friendly rights
From 6 April 2024, there is extra protection from redundancy for pregnant employees right up to 18 months after birth. The protection begins when you’re informed by them that they are pregnant. This protection also applies to adoption and shared parental leave as well as maternity leave.
This means that if you do need to make redundancies, those pregnant, on maternity leave, on adoption or parental leave will have priority for alternative employment.
If you are considering a restructure then you need to keep this in mind. You may also want to encourage your staff to confidentially disclose their pregnancy not just because of this, but also for health and safety, as early as possible.
Paternity Leave
Keeping in with the raft of changes to support working parents, paternity leave is also being updated on 6 April with the 2024 employment law changes.
Fathers are now able to take up to two weeks of paternity leave in two separate blocks. This can be taken any time during the first year of childbirth or adoption.
This is a reminder to update your handbooks with the new change and to check with anyone who you know is likely to take paternity leave after 6 April.
Statutory Rates Increase
There will also be an increase in the rates of statutory pay. Rates, such as statutory maternity pay, are increasing from £172.48 per week to £184.03 per week. Statutory sick pay is increasing from £109.40 per week to £116.75 per week.
There will be no change to the lower earnings limit rate.
Watch the full updates:
TUPE Changes
Later in the year, there will be changes to how businesses need to consult with employees during TUPE.
Businesses with less than 50 employees will be able to consult directly with their employees without the need to appoint representatives.
If there are less than 10 employees transferring, then all businesses can consult directly with employees, regardless of size.
This is only if there is no employee representative already in place. These changes, which are coming in on 1 July 2024, are designed to make it easier for businesses transferring employees and give more flexibility on consultation. Without the process of election, this is likely to become an easier process for all.
Tipping
A change that will be welcomed by those working in the hospitality industry is due to come into effect from 1st of October 2024. Employers will no longer be able to keep tips that customers leave and will need to fairly allocate tips to workers - including agency workers - by the end of the month after the tip is given.
Tipping must:
Be objective, fair and reasonable to all workers
Be based on a “clear and objective set of factors” if distinguished by any factors such as seniority or length of service. Employers do not need to give the same proportion of tips to all workers
Be equitable
Employers need to make a written policy on tipping that is available to staff and they have the right to request information about their own reward value. Make sure you have a tipping policy in place. We can help you with this.
Neonatal Care Leave
A change to neonatal care leave is due around October 2024. If a child is hospitalised for at least one week up to 28 days after they are born, then up to 12 weeks can be added to maternity or parental leave for neonatal care. Pay is at normal statutory rates.
This is a right from day one. Make sure your policies and handbooks are updated to reflect this change.
Harrassment
From October 2024, all employers will be duty-bound to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment. This will bring about a much-needed culture change towards harassment in the workplace.
We’ll be giving our clients more support around this as October approaches but for now:
Put in place a reporting register for complaints about all forms of harassment in the workplace
Review and update anti-harassment and dignity at work policies
Make sure all staff know what standard of behaviour is expected of them
Review and update anti-harassment training.
Training needs to be proactive and not a “tick box” exercise. Make sure your staff have regular training. We can help you with online and face to face training.
The employment tribunal has the power to uplift awards by 25% when an employer is in breach of their duty.
Additional Changes
While these are the key changes so far this year, we do expect extra employment law updates later in the year.
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