Employment (UK)

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From 6 April 2025, new rules will give eligible employees a statutory right to paid time off if their baby requires neonatal care. This time off is in addition to their other statutory rights, such as maternity, paternity, adoption and shared parental leave, and it will be important for employers and employees to understand how the new right works. This blog explains the upcoming changes, considers issues arising and describes how employers can prepare and manage the impact.

What’s happening?

At the moment, parents whose babies need neonatal care do not have any specific rights over and above the right to maternity, paternity, adoption or shared parental leave (as may be applicable to them). After years of lobbying by charities for premature and sick babies, this is about to change with an additional right to paid neonatal care leave, allowing affected parents to take extra time off to support their family in these difficult circumstances. The government estimates that the new rules will benefit 60,000 new parents.Continue Reading Neonatal care leave and pay: what UK employers need to know about the new statutory right

The Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act 2023 comes into force on 26 October 2024, introducing a new duty for employers to take ‘reasonable steps’ to prevent sexual harassment at work. Accompanied by technical guidance issued by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), employers will be obliged to take a much more hands-on approach than has been required to date. This blog provides an overview of the new duty, and details what employers should be doing to ensure they do not fall foul of the new law.Continue Reading New duty to prevent sexual harassment: 12 things UK employers need to know

The government’s plans for unfair dismissal to become a day-one right (subject to reasonable use of probationary periods) create an uncertain time for employers, particularly those currently taking on new hires or entering into fixed term contracts. While we await detail of the government’s plans, we take a brief look at the history of the qualifying period and the transitional arrangements which have applied, the latter potentially indicative of what the arrangements will be this time around.

The right not to be unfairly dismissed has been part of established UK employment law since 1971 and is currently legislated for in the Employment Rights Act 1996. Although there are some exceptions, the right has always been subject to a qualifying period of service, i.e., that the employee must have been working for their employer for a prescribed period of time before they have unfair dismissal rights.Continue Reading Transition arrangements for a change in unfair dismissal qualification

The most significant UK employment law reform for 30 years includes radical plans for unfair dismissal rights to be available from day one of employment. When this was announced before the election, the government indicated that this would not prevent the “fair and transparent” use of probationary periods to assess new hires, and the Financial Times reported last week that employers will be able to engage new staff on probationary periods of up to six months, allowing them to be dismissed more easily in this time. 

This, naturally, raises the question as to how a six-month probationary period will sit alongside a day-one right. The answer to that question remains unclear. Continue Reading Day-one unfair dismissal rights and a six-month probationary period – how will that work?

Earlier this month, the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) updated its warning notice on the appropriate use of non-disclosure agreements (NDA), creating increased regulatory obligations for lawyers advising on, drafting and negotiating settlement agreements.

The updated warning notice reflects principles set out in existing Acas guidance which applies to anyone involved in settlement agreements. Whilst the warning notice only applies to those regulated by the SRA, i.e., law firms and lawyers (including in-house lawyers), it will be interesting to see whether the changes, which effectively give teeth to certain principles in the guidance as they apply to lawyers, have a wider impact on market practice approach to NDAs in settlement agreements. Failure by lawyers to comply with the SRA warning notice can result in them facing disciplinary action by the SRA for breach of their regulatory obligations.Continue Reading New SRA requirements for dealing with NDAs: Impact on settlement agreements

With the Euros kicking off on 14 June, people all over the UK and Europe are discussing strikers. While most in England are debating whether it should be Ivan Toney or Ollie Watkins as first-choice deputy for Harry Kane, in the employment law world we have been focusing on the strikers at the heart of an important new Supreme Court decision in Secretary of State for Business and Trade v Mercer.

In Mercer, the Supreme Court was asked to consider whether an employee is protected from retaliation if their employer suspends or disciplines them in an effort to deter them from going on strike, and whether or not section 146 TULRCA 1992 really protects employers rather than employees.Continue Reading Striker! Does UK law adequately protect an employee’s right to strike?

To date, the UK government has adopted a “pro innovation” approach to AI regulation, refraining from legislation. This has been with a view to enable the UK to keep pace with rapid developments in AI.  However, this looks set to change with the recent publication of a first draft Artificial Intelligence (Regulation and Employment Rights) Bill (“the Bill”), potentially marking the starting point for more formal regulation, particularly in relation to workplace decision making by AI. This blog explores what the Bill proposes by way of regulation, and some practical tips for what employers can be doing now.Continue Reading AI in the workplace – is regulation on its way in the UK?

On 14 May 2024, the government and financial services regulators published their responses to the recommendations made by the Sexism in the City inquiry. Those hoping that the inquiry would quickly lead to solid commitments for reform to tackle sexism in financial services may be somewhat disappointed. While the inquiry certainly created momentum around the discussion, the current government does not intend to push forward legislative changes, and the two regulators (the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA)) are still deep in review of their policy direction, although they have set some expectations about their priorities.

In this blog, we look at the background to the Sexism in the City inquiry, the current status in respect of the inquiry’s recommendations, and where this leaves financial services organisations.

What is the Sexism in the City inquiry?

Launched in July 2023, the House of Commons Treasury Committee’s inquiry was intended as a follow up to the Women in Finance inquiry from 2017. The 2023 inquiry set out to explore progress on issues affecting women in financial services, including the removal of barriers to entry and progression to successful careers, representation at board level, pay gaps, and misogyny and harassment. 

After months of reviewing written evidence, hearing oral evidence and holding focus groups, the Committee published its report on Sexism in the City on 5 March 2024. While the report noted some improvement for women in financial services since the 2017 inquiry, particularly on female representation in senior roles, it also expressed disappointment at the lack of progress on improving instances of non-financial misconduct (e.g. sexual harassment and bullying) against women and the generally poor culture continuing to cause challenges for women in the industry. The inquiry made a number of recommendations to government, and the two regulators, to accelerate change.

How have the government and regulators responded to the inquiry’s recommendations?

Two months after the Committee’s report, the response from HM Treasury, the FCA and PRA has been published. Whilst there is a broad agreement with the Committee’s comments and sentiments about the need for improvement, and various explanations about what steps have already been taken or are currently ongoing, the government and regulators largely stopped short of committing to prompt and significant changes in line with the recommendations.  Continue Reading What next for women in financial services? The government and regulators respond to recommendations from the Sexism in the City inquiry

Paternity leave has not been forgotten in the swathe of family related legislative changes taking effect in April 2024. However, anyone hoping for significant changes will be disappointed. The changes are limited to improving flexibility for eligible employees wanting to take the existing right to two weeks of statutory paternity leave. There is no increase…

The practice of fire and rehire has hit the headlines and been the topic of political debate in recent years. While the current UK government has rejected calls to outlaw entirely the practice, in early 2022 it committed to introducing a statutory code of practice to set out expected standards of behaviour and best practice.

Our blog from 13 February 2023 considered the draft code as the consultation was launched. We now provide an update on the content of the new Code and explores some challenges and tips for employers faced with navigating a change of terms and conditions once the Code comes into force, including the punitive sanctions for non-compliance, as well as a look ahead to what might change if we have a change to a Labour party government in the next 12 months.Continue Reading Developments with the UK’s ‘fire and rehire’ clampdown: what’s next?