2024 is set to be a busy year for employment lawyers and human resources professionals, with various new laws expected to come into effect during the course of the year which employers will need to proactively prepare for. We provide an at-a-glance guide of what changes take effect when.

At a glance: Key legislative changes for 2024

Continue Reading Anticipating changes: UK employment law for 2024

Flexible parental leave

The Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, has today announced plans to introduce a new flexible system of parental leave, as part of what is described as a “radical” shake-up.

Under the reforms, a mother will still be required to take a compulsory 2 week period of leave after the birth of a child, but at any time following that, the parents will be able to ‘opt in’ to the new flexible parental leave system, and to share what remains of the maternity leave period.

It will be up to both parents to decide how they share the remaining period of leave – they may choose to split the leave between them, take it in turns, or take some time off together.

A new statutory payment for parents on flexible parental leave will be introduced, with the same qualifying requirements that currently apply to maternity and paternity pay.Continue Reading “Radical” reform of parental leave announced

In this alert we outline the main changes in UK employment law this October. The most notable piece of legislation coming into force this October is the Agency Workers Regulations 2010, but there are quite a few possible changes afoot. These include a forthcoming increase to the qualifying period for employees to bring unfair dismissal claims from one year to two years, as well as introducing fees for lodging employment tribunal claims.

Agency Workers Regulations

On 1 October 2011, the Agency Workers Regulations 2010 will come into effect. These controversial new regulations (the Regulations) will have a dramatic impact on the relationship between agency workers, agencies and hirers. They will provide increased protection to agency workers, giving them from day one equal access to facilities and amenities at work and the right to receive information about new positions within the hirer. Most importantly, after working for a qualifying period of twelve weeks, agency workers also have the same right to basic working and employment conditions as those enjoyed by workers recruited directly by the hirer. Both the hirer and the recruitment agency may be liable for breach, depending on the type of claim.

What you should be doing:

  • make an assessment of the skills required for roles carried out by your agency workers and your employees to assess whether the agency workers have an appropriate comparator for the purposes of the Regulations;
  • carry out an audit of your agency workers, paying particular attention to their basic terms of employment, and comparing them to the terms of “comparable” employees;
  • provide to agencies appropriate information of comparable workers (including standard terms of employment, pay scales and holiday entitlements);
  • put in place HR systems to accurately calculate the qualifying period for each agency worker;
  • consider mechanisms to mitigate the impact of the Regulations and take advice as necessary.

For more information concerning the basic rights of hirers and agency workers, please see our client alert.Continue Reading What’s coming up in UK employment law this October?

In April last year we posted a blog on the change in law on paternity leave focussing on the new right to Additional Paternity Leave (APL) which came into force on 6 April 2010. Under this, eligible employees whose children are due to be born on or after 3 April 2011 will have the right to take up to 6 months’ APL. The right will also apply in the case of adoptions where parents are notified of a match on or after 3 April 2011.

Since the implementation of the right to take APL, a question has arisen on whether an employer who offers an enhanced maternity pay package to its female employees should also offer enhanced paternity pay to those employees who take APL.

This issue has become particularly pressing since a recent ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in the Spanish case of Roca Álvarez v Sesa Start España ETT SA (ECJ Case C-104/09). Spanish law provides that female employees are entitled to time off during the course of the working day to feed a child under the age of 9 months. This right was originally introduced to facilitate breastfeeding by working mothers. However, this right was subsequently developed so as to allow fathers to take this leave provided both parents were employed. Therefore mothers who are employed were always entitled to this leave while fathers who also have employed status would only be so entitled if the child’s mother is also an employed person. This difference under the provision was held by the CJEU to amount to sex discrimination. In reaching this decision, the CJEU noted that the purpose of this leave was no longer strictly associated with breastfeeding but was actually a measure which reconciled family life and work for both parents. Therefore this purpose could be achieved by fathers taking the time off work as well as mothers. In addition, the fact that this leave could be taken by the father meant that this measure could not be regarded as being to ensure the protection of the special relationship between a mother and her child.Continue Reading Enhanced Paternity Pay

Regulations concerning the new right to additional paternity leave (APL) came into force on 6th April 2010. Currently those eligible for ordinary statutory paternity leave are entitled to one whole week or two consecutive weeks’ paternity leave on statutory paternity pay, which is currently £124.88, to be taken within eight weeks of the expected week of childbirth (EWC). However, eligible fathers whose children are due on or after 3 April 2011 will have the right to take up to 6 months’ additional paternity leave (APL). The right will also apply to adoptions where parents are notified of a match on or after 3 April 2011 and husbands, partners or civil partners who are not the child’s father but expect to have the main responsibility (apart from the mother) for the child’s upbringing.

Continue reading our for a summary of the new provisions regarding Additional Paternity Leave.Continue Reading Paternity leave