Employment Law Updates 2024.
The employee handbook is legally up to date at the time of sale. However, the following changes to employment law updates for 2024 will come into effect later this year and should be incorporated into your handbook on the following dates this year. The employee handbook template will be updated to reflect all upcoming changes to employment law at the appropriate time.
If you purchase an employee handbook prior to these changes, you’ll need to update the handbook with these changes or contact me and I will send you an updated policy or handbook for free (whichever your prefer), for 2024 changes only.
January 1st, 2024 — Annual leave carryover rules. This marks a pivotal change in leave policies, as workers gain the right to carry over up to 28 days of leave into the ensuing year under specific circumstances. This includes instances of maternity or family-related leave, sickness absence (with a limit of 20 days within 18 months post the accrual year), refusal of paid leave by employers, failure to facilitate holiday-taking opportunities, or failure to notify workers about impending loss of accrued leave.
Furthermore, starting January 1st, 2024, the era of COVID-19 carryover leave comes to an end. Employees are no longer permitted to retain leave they couldn’t utilize due to pandemic disruptions for more than two additional years. Employers must ensure that any COVID-related accrued leave prior to this date must be utilized by or on March 31st, 2024.
April 1st, 2024 — Rolled up holiday pay — A new option emerges for employers regarding irregular-hours or part-year workers. They now have the flexibility to incorporate holiday pay into regular paychecks, an amount equal to 12.07% of normal pay, rather than paying separately when leave is taken.
There are also adjustments to the definition of a week’s pay for holiday remuneration. As of January 1st, 2024, certain payments must be factored into holiday pay calculations, including commission payments linked to job performance, payments tied to professional or service-related status, and regularly received overtime payments over the preceding 52 weeks. However, the remaining 1.6 weeks’ entitlement can still be paid at the ‘basic’ rate of pay. Please download our Rolled-up holiday pay calculator for Irregular hours and part-year workers
April 6th 2024 – Flexible working rights from day one for all employees
The amendments to the Flexible Working Regulations, known as the Flexible Working (Amendment) Regulations 2023, have been officially presented before Parliament and are slated to take effect on April 6, 2024. Notably, these regulations bring about a significant change by transforming the right to submit a flexible working application into a day one entitlement as of the aforementioned date. You can download a flexible working day-one rights policy here.
Until April 5, 2024, employees must maintain 26 weeks of continuous employment to exercise this right. However, this requirement will be eliminated come April 6, 2024.
It is anticipated that additional flexible working reforms outlined in the Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Act 2023 will also be implemented on the same date. Although a commencement order confirming this is pending, these reforms are expected to include provisions that:
- Allow employees to submit up to two flexible working applications within a 12-month period.
- Remove the obligation for employees to elucidate the anticipated impact of their flexible working request on the employer.
- Mandate employers to engage in consultation with employees prior to rejecting their flexible working application.
- Establish a timeframe of 2 months within which employers must respond to flexible working requests.
These amendments reflect a broader shift toward fostering a more adaptable and employee-friendly work environment, signaling a positive stride in the realm of flexible working arrangements.
April 6th 2024 – Carer’s leave entitlement
Starting April 6, 2024, employees will be entitled to a week of statutory unpaid leave for caregiving purposes. The Carer’s Leave Regulations 2024, currently in draft form, have been released to outline the practical workings of this novel right. In short, the key procedural elements of the policy are:
- Employees using the leave must take a minimum of half a working day at a time; a working day meaning the employee’s usual working pattern. There is no need for the leave to be used on consecutive days either. Employees could therefore take five separate days over a 12-month rolling period.
- Employees are required to provide notice, although this does not need to be in writing. The notice must include the fact that the employee is entitled to take carer’s leave and the day(s) or part of a day that will be taken.
- Employees will be required to give notice which is either twice the length of time being requested, or three days, whichever is the longest. It is open to employers to waive the notice requirement provided the employee is otherwise eligible to take carer’s leave.
April 6th 2024 – Enhanced Redundancy Protection
From 6 April 2024, employees who are pregnant or returning from maternity, adoption or shared parental leave will gain priority status for redeployment opportunities in a redundancy situation.
Under the current law, employees on maternity leave, shared parental leave or adoption leave already have special protection in a redundancy situation. They have the right to be offered a suitable alternative vacancy, if one is available, before being made redundant. This gives employees on these types of leave priority access to redeployment opportunities over other redundant employees.
The Protection from Redundancy (Pregnancy and Family Leave) Act 2023 extends the priority status to pregnant employees and those who have recently returned from maternity/adoption leave and shared parental leave. The government has now published the regulations setting out how the new rights will work in practice and bringing the rights into force from 6 April 2024.
May 2024 – Fair allocation of tips, gratuities and service charges
New legislation is expected to come into effect in October 2024 requiring employers to ensure all tips, gratuities and service charges are allocated fairly and transparently between their workers. It requires an employer to have a written policy on how it deals with tips, gratuities and service charges. Our restaurant employee handbook includes a written policy on tips. Employers will need to keep records of such payments received for three years, which can be done using this Excel Calculator for Tronc/Tip Pool Payment Distribution to UK Restaurant Staff, available on my small business support site thecareercafe.co.uk. This excel tip distribution tool does an automated weekly calculation and fair distribution of tips based on your input criteria and can be archived on a weekly basis, enabling you to comply with regulations.
September 2024 – The Workers (Predictable Terms and Conditions) Act 2023
The Workers (Predictable Terms and Conditions) Act 2023, which received Royal Assent this year, is set to take effect in Q4. In instances where employees find their work excessively flexible and unpredictable, they possess the right to request a more structured working pattern, akin to a flexible working request.
The entitlement to seek more predictable working conditions will function much like the process for requesting flexible working. The employee is required to clearly outline the desired change and the intended effective date. A maximum of two applications can be submitted by an employee within a 12-month period.
Employers are obligated to handle these requests reasonably and are only permitted to refuse based on specific business-related grounds stipulated in the legislation. These grounds may encompass factors such as costs and other adverse impacts on the company.
October 2024 – New legislation around employer’s duty to prevent sexual harassment of employees
New legislation has been passed to introduce a duty for all employers to take reasonable, proactive steps to prevent sexual harassment of employees in the course of their employment. This comes into force in October 2024, applying to protect workers against unwanted conduct of a “sexual nature” and to all genders. Employers should be introducing and updating where necessary policies and procedures dealing with harassment and supporting staff to speak up about it, along with providing relevant training to staff members. You can download a Prevention of Sexual Harassment Policy UK (POSH) template here.
