In this eighth edition of The Employment Edit, we report on the annual increases to UK employment compensation limits, and focus on the changes to family leave rights in the UK which come into force from 6 April 2024 in relation to:

• The new right to take carer’s leave.
• Changes to paternity leave.
• Extended protection from redundancy for employees who take maternity, adoption or shared parental leave.
• Changes to the right to request flexible working.

New right to take carer’s leave

The Carer's Leave Act 2023 and The Carer’s Leave Regulations 2024 give employees in the UK a new right to take “carer’s leave” with effect from 6 April 2024. An employee who has a dependant with a long-term care need will be entitled to take one week of unpaid leave in any 12-month rolling period to provide or arrange care for that dependant. This leave entitlement can be used to care for more than one dependant, but an employee is not entitled to more leave if they have more than one dependant. This is a ‘day one’ right for employees only, requiring no minimum period of service with the employer.

A person is a dependant if they:

• Are the employee’s spouse, civil partner, child or parent;
• Live in the same household as the employee (other than as the employee’s boarder, employee, lodger or tenant); or
• Reasonably rely on the employee to provide or arrange care.

A dependant has a long-term care need if they:

• Have an illness or injury (whether physical or mental) that requires, or is likely to require, care for more than three months;
• Have a disability for the purposes of the Equality Act 2010; or
• Require care for a reason connected with their old age.

Carer’s leave may be taken in either individual or continuous full or half days up to a maximum of one week. This entitlement is pro-rated for part-time employees (e.g. an employee who works three days a week will be entitled to three days of carer’s leave in a rolling 12-month period). In broad terms, for employees whose working hours vary, the entitlement should be calculated by reference to the employee’s average working week assessed over the previous 52-week period.

An employee who wishes to take carer’s leave must give their employer notice, which does not need to be in writing, stating that they satisfy the applicable eligibility requirements, setting out the days on which they wish to take carer’s leave, and whether those days will be half or full days. The notice period that must be given is twice as many days as the period of carer’s leave that the employee wishes to take with a minimum of three days’ notice. The employer cannot require the employee to supply evidence in relation to a request to take carer’s leave before granting the leave. If the employee does not give the notice within the required timescale, the employer may waive this requirement if the employee’s notice otherwise contains all the required information.

An employer may postpone a period of carer’s leave if it reasonably considers that the operation of its business would be unduly disrupted if the employee takes the leave requested. In such circumstances the employer must consult with the employee and agree alternative dates for leave of the same duration to be taken within a month of the leave period originally requested. The revised dates should be notified to the employee in writing within seven days of the employee’s original request, setting out the reasons for the postponement.

Carer’s leave is unpaid. During any period of leave the employee’s terms and conditions of employment continue as usual except for terms relating to remuneration (wages or salary). The employee is entitled to return to the same job following a period of carer’s leave.

An employee will be able to bring a claim in the Employment Tribunal (ET) if they are dismissed or suffer a detriment because they take or seek to take carer’s leave. They may also claim compensation if their employer unreasonably postpones a period of carer’s leave or prevents or attempts to prevent the employee from taking carer’s leave. The ET will award such compensation as it considers just and equitable in all the circumstances, including the employer’s behaviour and any consequential loss sustained by the employee.

Where the employee has a separate right to take carer’s leave (e.g. in their contract of employment), which corresponds to this new statutory right, the employee may not exercise both rights but must take advantage of whichever right is most favourable. The employee will still benefit from the statutory protection described above (e.g. from detriment and dismissal).

Changes to paternity leave

In January 2024, a number of relatively minor changes were announced to statutory paternity leave entitlements in the UK, which come into effect in April 2024.

Currently, eligible employees are entitled to take one or two weeks of paternity leave in the eight weeks following a child’s birth or placement for adoption. To be eligible they must be the child’s father, or the spouse, civil partner or partner of the child’s mother or primary adopter, and they must expect to have responsibility for the child’s upbringing. Statutory paternity pay is payable for up to two weeks. The rate of statutory paternity pay from 6 April 2024 will be £184.03 per week (or 90 percent of the employee’s weekly earnings if lower).

The key changes to be made by The Paternity Leave (Amendment) Regulations 2024 are as follows:

• Eligible employees will be given more flexibility – they will be able to take one or two weeks of leave or two separate weeks of leave. Currently, employees are only able to take one continuous period of leave, meaning that if they take a period of leave of only one week, they lose the entitlement to the second week.

• Employees will be able to take paternity leave at any time during the first year after a child’s birth or placement for adoption. Currently, paternity leave must be taken within eight weeks of birth or adoption.

• In birth cases, the notice period which an employee is required to give the employer of the start date and duration of the leave will be shortened to 28 days. The notice period in adoption cases is much shorter because the start date of adoption placements is likely to be more unpredictable than in birth cases. The current notice period, which is seven days after the employee is notified that they have been matched with a child for adoption, will stay the same.

• An employee will be able to vary or cancel a period of paternity leave by giving 28 days’ notice, which must be in writing if requested by the employer.

These changes also apply to overseas adoption and surrogacy cases.

These amendments will have effect for children whose expected week of birth begins, or expected placement for adoption is, on or after 6 April 2024. Employees who have already given notice under the existing regulations will be treated as having complied with the new regulations.

Extended protection from redundancy for employees who take maternity, adoption or shared parental leave

The Protection from Redundancy (Pregnancy and Family Leave) Act 2023 and the Maternity Leave, Adoption Leave and Shared Parental Leave (Amendment) Regulations 2024, which are in force from 6 April 2024, extend the existing right of an employee who is on maternity, adoption or shared parental leave and whose role is redundant to be offered any available suitable alternative vacancy within either the employer or any associated employer.

This right is now being extended to cover:

• A protected period of pregnancy.

• An additional protected period which ends 18 months after birth or adoption.

In practice, this means that employees’ existing protections are extended to cover a period of pregnancy before the employee starts maternity leave and a period after an employee has returned to work after taking a period of statutory maternity, adoption or shared parental leave. This additional protected period is calculated as 18 months starting from birth or placement for adoption. This means that it applies no matter how much leave is taken, save for the minimum requirement to have taken six consecutive weeks of shared parental leave.

The protected period of pregnancy begins when the employee notifies the employer of the pregnancy. This may be after the pregnancy has ended. If the employee is entitled to take statutory maternity leave, the protected period ends on the day on which statutory maternity leave begins. If the employee is not entitled to statutory maternity leave, the protected period ends two weeks after the end of the pregnancy. There is no protected period for an employee who does not notify the employer of her pregnancy until after the end of the period which would have been protected if she had made the notification. These changes come into effect for employees who notify their employer of their pregnancy on or after 6 April 2024.

The additional protected period applies to employees who are entitled to take statutory maternity leave, adoption leave or who take six weeks or more of continuous shared parental leave. The additional protected period begins on the day after the last day of the employee's statutory maternity, adoption or shared parental leave period. It continues while the employee remains continuously employed, for a period of 18 months. This additional protected period of 18 months begins:

• In birth cases at the beginning of the week in which the baby is expected to be born, or the date of birth if the employee has notified the employer of this. The employer may require the employee to provide notification of the actual date of birth in writing.

• In adoption cases, on the date the child is placed with the employee for adoption.

• In shared parental leave cases, on the date of the child’s birth or the date on which the child is placed with the employee for adoption.

These changes come into effect where the employee’s period of statutory leave ends on or after 6 April 2024.

Changes to the right to request flexible working

The Flexible Working (Amendment) Regulations 2023 will remove the requirement that an employee must have at least 26 weeks’ service with their employer in order to be able to make a request for flexible working.

The Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Act 2023 makes the following changes to the right to request flexible working arrangements:

• Allowing employees to present two statutory requests in any 12-month period (rather than one as at present).
• Introducing a requirement for employers to consult with an employee before refusing a request.
• Reducing the period within which an employer is required to process and respond to a request from three months to two months.
• Removing the existing requirement for the employee to explain the effect of this change on the employer and how that might be addressed, as part of their request.

These changes are in force from 6 April 2024.

Acas has revised its Code of Practice on requests for flexible working to reflect these changes. The revised code can be found here.

Takeaway: UK employers should familiarise themselves with the changes outlined above, consider amending existing handbooks and policies to reflect the changes and adding a new policy to handbooks to cover carer’s leave. If you would like any further information about the issues we have covered in this issue of the Edit, please get in touch with your usual contact in the London employment team.

Annual increases to UK employment compensation limits

With effect from 6 April 2024, certain compensation limits will be increased by The Employment Rights (Increase of Limits) Order 2024. These new limits apply where the event giving rise to the entitlement to payment or compensation, for example the termination of employment, occurs on or after 6 April 2024. The key increases include:

• The cap on a week’s pay for the purposes of calculating both the basic award in unfair dismissal cases and statutory redundancy payments will be increased from £643 to £700. This means that the maximum basic award for unfair dismissal and the maximum statutory redundancy payment will increase from £19,290 to £21,000.

• The maximum compensatory award for unfair dismissal will rise from £105,707 to £115,115, or if lower, one year’s gross pay. The cap on compensation does not apply to certain dismissals, including those arising due to unlawful discrimination or whistleblowing.