Changes to UK employment law in 2024

The UK Government has announced several changes to UK employment law in 2024. Some of these take effect from April, with others due to come into force later in the year. 

These new measures, which arise under several different pieces of legislation, apply to England, Scotland, and Wales. Employment law in Northern Ireland is a devolved matter.

In this post, we provide an overview of the employment law changes you need to know about. We also include information on increases to minimum wage and statutory pay rates for 2024.

1. Calculating holiday entitlement – from 1 April 2024

To simplify holiday entitlement and holiday pay calculations for irregular-hours and part-year workers, the Government has introduced several reforms in the Working Time Regulations.  

These types of workers are defined as follows:

• A worker is an irregular hours worker, in relation to a leave year, if the number of paid hours that they will work in each pay period during the term of their contract in that year is, under the terms of their contract, wholly or mostly variable.

• A worker is a part-year worker, in relation to a leave year, if, under the terms of their contract, they are required to work only part of that year and there are periods within that year (during the term of the contract) of at least a week which they are not required to work and for which they are not paid. This includes part-year workers who may have fixed hours.

For holiday years beginning on or after 1 April 2024, there is a new accrual method for calculating holiday entitlement for workers in their first year of employment and thereafter. Employers must calculate holiday entitlement for these workers as 12.07% of the actual hours worked in a pay period.

Rolled-up holiday pay for irregular-hour workers and seasonal or part-year workers has also been reinstated. 

Under the new rules, workers who have been unable to take their annual leave entitlement due to being on sick leave or statutory leave can carry forward their unused entitlement into the following holiday year.

The same rule applies if an employee has unused leave because their employer refused to pay them their entitlement, failed to give them a reasonable opportunity to take the time off, or didn’t inform the worker that unused leave had to be taken by the end of the year.

2. Changes to flexible working – from 6 April 2024

Through the Employment Rights (Flexible Working) Act 2023 and The Flexible Working (Amendment) Regulations 2023, employees have the right to make a flexible working request from their very first day of employment. Previously, they had to work a 26-week qualifying period before making such a request.

Furthermore, employees are now able to make two flexible working requests a year, as opposed to just one. They no longer have to explain what impact they think their request will have on the employer.

The deadline for an employer to respond to a request for flexible working has been reduced from three months to two months. This includes any appeal process. They must consult with the employee before making a decision. 

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If they deny a request after discussing it with the employee, the employer must explain their reasons for doing so. The list of reasons that an employer can use to deny a flexible working request remains the same, including:

• additional costs that will damage the business
• the employee’s work cannot be reorganised amongst other staff
• people cannot be recruited to do the work
• flexible working will have a detrimental effect on quality
• flexible working will impact performance
• the business will be unable to meet customer demand
• there is insufficient work to do during the employee’s proposed working times
• the business is planning changes to the workforce

If the employer agrees to the request for flexible working, they must provide the employee with the following in writing:

• a statement of the agreed changes
• a start date for flexible working

Additionally, they should change the employee’s contract accordingly with the new terms and conditions. This should be carried out within 28 days of approving the request.

3. Unpaid carer’s leave – from 6 April 2024

Under the Carer’s Leave Act 2023 and the associated Carer’s Leave Regulations 2024, employees now have the right to take one week of unpaid leave per year if they have caring responsibilities.

This entitlement applies to any employee who is caring for a spouse or civil partner, a child, parent or other dependant (family or otherwise) who requires care due to disability, old age, or an illness or injury likely to need at least three months of care. 

An employee’s statutory carer’s leave entitlement is available from their first day of employment. There is no qualifying period.

They can take their leave flexibly, but must provide the employer with the following minimum notice:

• For leave of half a day or a day – at least 3 days’ notice
• For leave of more than one day – at least twice as many days’ notice as the requested leave (e.g. if the request is for 2 days, the notice period must be at least 4 days)

The employee doesn’t have to give their request in writing, nor do they need to provide evidence of a dependant’s care needs. 

An employer cannot refuse a request for unpaid carer’s leave. However, if it would seriously disrupt the business, they can ask the employee to take the leave at a different time. 

4. Protection from redundancy for pregnant staff – from 6 April 2024

The Government has extended existing protections from redundancy for employees taking maternity leave, adoption leave, and shared parental leave. 

These employees now have protection from redundancy for at least 18 months from the:

• day they first notify the employer of their pregnancy, until 18 months after the birth of their child
• date of adoption placement for parents taking adoption leave 
• child’s birth, where a parent is taking at least six continuous weeks of shared parental leave

If an employee is taking less than six weeks of shared parental leave, they will have protection during their period of leave.

This protection means that, where the employee’s role is made redundant, they must be given first refusal of any other vacancies in the business. However, if there are no appropriate vacancies available, the employee can still be made redundant.

Before these changes introduced by the Protection from Redundancy (Pregnancy and Family Leave) Act 2023 and the Maternity Leave, Adoption Leave and Shared Parental Leave (Amendment) Regulations 2024, employees were only protected from redundancy during their period of maternity, adoption, or shared parental leave.

5. Greater flexibility for Statutory Paternity Leave – from 6 April 2024

Under the Paternity Leave (Amendment) Regulations 2024, any employee taking Statutory Paternity Leave now has the option to split their two weeks of leave into two separate one-week blocks. Previously, eligible employees had to take their leave as either two consecutive weeks or just one week. 

Furthermore, they can take their Paternity Leave at any time in the 52 weeks following their child’s birth (or due date, if the baby is born early), rather than within 56 days from the birth or due date, as was previously required.

The notice period for taking this leave has been cut to 28 days for each week of leave. Previously, 15 weeks’ notice was required. If the employee wants to change the start date of their Paternity Leave, they must give their employer at least 28 days’ notice.

6. Ban of withholding tips – from 1 July 2024 

Changes to the distribution of tips, gratuities, and service charges have been introduced by the Employment (Allocation of Tips) Act 2023, with effect from 1 July 2024. 

Under the new rules, employers must:

• pass on 100% of tips and service charges to their workers without making deductions, except in very limited scenarios, such as the deduction of Income Tax
• distribute tips fairly and transparently in situations where they take control, or exert significant influence, over their distribution
• have regard to this code of practice on fairness and transparency of tip distribution, when they distribute or influence the distribution of tips
• maintain a written policy on how they deal with tips at their place of business, ensuring this policy is available to all of their workers
• maintain a record of all tips they pay, and their allocation and distribution between each of their workers, to which all workers have the right to request access

The employer must pay their workers their share of the tips as part of the next payroll cycle.

Further guidance on the new law and code of practice on the distribution of tips is available from GOV.UK. 

7. Fire and rehire practices – expected by summer 2024 

A new code of practice on using ‘fire and rehire’ to make changes to an employee’s contract is expected to come into force at some point in the summer of 2024. The Government published its latest draft Statutory Code of Practice on Dismissal and Re-engagement on 19 February 2024.

The new code sets out an employer’s responsibilities when they are seeking to change employment terms and conditions in situations where there is the prospect of dismissal and re-engagement. It requires the employer to consult with affected staff and explore alternative options, without using any threat of dismissal to pressure employees into agreeing to the new terms.

8. Predictable working patterns – expected September 2024

Under the Workers (Predictable Terms and Conditions) Act 2023, employees on fixed-term and zero-hours contracts, or those who have other atypical working patterns, will have the statutory right to request more predictable working patterns.

To be able to do so, the worker must meet the following criteria:

• they have been in employment or service for at least 26 weeks
• any part of their working pattern is unpredictable (e.g. they’re on a zero-hours contract and don’t have a guaranteed number of hours)
• their request relates to a change in work pattern (e.g. number of working hours, days of the week they work, the times they work, or the length of their contract)
• the purpose of their request is to achieve a more predictable working pattern
• they have not made more than two requests (this includes any request for flexible working) in the last year

Similar to flexible working requests, the employer will have the right to refuse a request for predictable working patterns on various grounds.

A draft Code of Practice on handling employee requests for a predictable working pattern is available from Acas. 

9. Preventing sexual harassment – expected October 2024

To address the prevalence of sexual harassment in the workplace, the Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act 2023 will come into force in October 2024. This introduces a new duty for UK employers to take “reasonable steps” to prevent sexual harassment of employees in the workplace.

Employers may be found liable if an employment tribunal is satisfied that sexual harassment occurred and the employer failed to take reasonable steps to prevent it. 

Under such circumstances, employment tribunals can increase the amount of compensation payable to a claimant by up to 25%.

10. Paid leave when a baby requires neonatal care – date TBD

Whilst not due to come into force until early 2025, the Neonatal Care (Leave and Pay) Act 2023 received Royal Assent on 24 May 2023, so it’s worth knowing about this as an employer. 

Currently, when an employee’s baby requires neonatal care, they can only use their holiday leave or a form of parental leave to look after their baby. Under the new legislation, employees will have the right to take up to 12 weeks of paid neonatal care leave if their baby needs specialist care:

• within 28 days of birth, and
• for at least seven consecutive days

This leave will be available to employees from their first day of employment in a new job. It is in addition to their other parental leave entitlements, such as maternity, paternity, and shared leave. However, the employee must have 26 weeks of service and earnings to qualify.

As is the case for other forms of parental pay, it is expected that neonatal care pay will be at the prescribed statutory rate, or 90% of the employee’s average weekly earnings (whichever is lower). The government will confirm this in due course, as well as the notice period and supporting evidence required to exercise this right. 

Employers will be able to reclaim statutory neonatal care payments from the government by reducing their employer’s National Insurance contributions.

11. Changes to workplace pensions – date TBD

Following the introduction of the new Pensions (Extension of Automatic Enrolment) Act 2023, the qualifying age for eligible employees to be automatically enrolled in a workplace pension scheme will be lowered from 22 years to 18 years. 

The new legislation will also remove the Lower Earnings Limit for qualifying earnings. This means that auto-enrolment contributions will be made from the employee’s first pound of earnings. 

As yet, no date has been given for the implementation of these changes to workplace pensions.

Other changes for employers in 2024

In addition to employment law changes in 2024, employers need to keep on top of statutory pay rates, which rise every year. Below, we outline the National Living Wage and Minimum Wage rates, Statutory Sick Pay, and statutory parental pay rates for 2024-25.

National Living Wage and Minimum Wage – from 1 April 2024

On 1 April, the hourly rates of the National Living Wage and National Minimum Wage increased to:

• £11.44 – workers aged 21 and over
• £8.60 – workers aged 18 to 20
• £6.40 – workers aged 16 to 17
• £6.40 – the apprentice rate

When employing an apprentice, you must pay them at least the apprentice rate if they’re under the age of 19, or if they are 19 or over and serving the first year of their apprenticeship.

However, you must pay an apprentice at least the minimum wage for their age, if they are 19 or over and have completed the first year of their apprenticeship.

Statutory Sick Pay rate – from 6 April 2024 

If an employee is too ill to work, you may have to pay them £116.75 per week in Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) for up to 28 weeks.

You must pay this for the days the employee normally works (their ‘qualifying days’) and in the same way as their wages (i.e. on their normal payday, deducting tax and National insurance where required).

More information is available from GOV.UK’s employer’s guide to Statutory Sick Pay.

Statutory pay rate for parents – from 7 April 2024 

The statutory rate of pay for employees taking parental leave is £184.03 per week, or 90% of their average weekly earnings (whichever is lower). This applies to:

• Statutory Maternity Pay (from the 7th week)
• Statutory Paternity Pay
• Statutory Shared Parental Pay
• Statutory Adoption Pay (from the 7th week)
• Statutory Bereavement Pay

The rate for the first 6 weeks of Statutory Maternity and Adoption Pay is 90% of the employee’s average weekly earnings.

You can use GOV.UK’s maternity, adoption and paternity calculator for employers to calculate an employee’s statutory pay entitlement, relevant employment period, average weekly earnings, and leave period.

Thanks for reading

Employment law changes can be confusing and overwhelming for business owners and managers. If you’re unsure of your duties, you should contact Acas or an HR specialist for professional advice.

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