Changes to employee rights in 2024

As years go, 2024 is quickly hotting up to be a biggie for employers and HR teams as they negotiate a raft of incoming legislation changes across a host of industries.

We'll see the majority of these changes coming in at the start of the new tax year in April, with others coming into force later in the year. We’ve summarised some of the biggest for you here.

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National minimum wage rises

Holiday pay calculations and leave

Flexible working requests

Protection from redundancy during pregnancy and maternity leave

Paternity leave requests

Statutory carer’s leave

Changes to IR35

A ban on withholding tips

Requests for predictable working patterns

A proactive duty to prevent sexual harassment at work

Statutory neonatal care leave

We also noted some other relevant entries for your calendar — also beneficial for the self-employed — in our article outlining key business dates for 2024.

National minimum wage rises

Date of change: 1 April 2024

What’s changing: In the Autumn Statement, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced that the minimum wage — also known as the National Living Wage — will increase for workers over 21 to £11.44 per hour as of 1 April.

Currently, the minimum wage is set at £10.42 per hour for workers over 23, and to £10.18 per hour for workers aged 21-22.

Who’s impacted: Anyone on minimum wage over the age of 21.

What employers will need to do: If you have employees being paid the minimum wage you’ll need to ensure your payroll — however this is managed — reflects these changes from 1 April.

You can find more information here.

Holiday pay calculations and leave

Date of change: 1 April 2024

What’s changing: For irregular-hour workers and part-year or part-time workers, leave accrual is getting a shake-up. For leave beginning on or after 1 April, holiday entitlement will be calculated as 12.07% of actual hours in a pay period.

Employers can also use “rolled-up holiday pay” as another way of calculating holiday pay for irregular-hour and part-year workers. This is when an employee gets paid their holiday pay at the same time as their basic pay, rather than paying holiday pay only when the employee takes annual leave.

“Rolled-up holiday pay” isn’t a legal requirement, but it’s an alternative approach you could use as an employer to pay holiday pay to your employees. This change should make it easier for employers to calculate entitlement and pay but also ensures that employees' holiday entitlements better reflect the hours they work.

This change also affects Transfer of Undertakings Protection of Employment (TUPE) rights, protecting employees and their benefits when they transfer from one employer to another.

Who’s impacted: Anyone who is an irregular-hour worker or a part-year, or part-time worker.

What employers will need to do: Depending on how you calculate your employees' holiday pay now, there might not be any change. A consultation with your employees before introducing a change to how you pay holidays is best practice, so they understand what is changing and why.

You can find more information here.

Flexible working requests

Date of change: 6 April 2024

What’s changing: From April, employees can request flexible working from the moment they join a company, rather than at the point they’ve accrued 26 weeks of service.

Employees will also no longer need to explain the effect their request may have on their employer and how it might be dealt with. Additionally, employees will have the right to make two requests in a 12-month period, rather than the current one request, with employers having to respond to a request within two months.

Flexible working is not a right, but the right to request it is, so employers can still reject requests they can't accommodate.

Who’s impacted: Anyone classed as an employee.

What employers will need to do: Employers will need to be ready to hear and process any requests they receive for flexible working from current and new members of staff from 6 April.

You can find more information here.

Protection from redundancy during pregnancy and maternity leave

Date of change: 6 April 2024

What’s changing: As it stands, employees on maternity leave, shared parental leave or adoption leave who are at risk of redundancy are required to be — as a priority — offered alternative roles should they exist within an organisation.

From April, this right is being extended to employees who are pregnant and for 18 months after taking relevant leave. Therefore, any employee whose maternity and adoption leave ends on or after 6 April 2024 and to a period of six consecutive weeks' shared parental leave starting on or after 6 April 2024 comes under this change.

Who’s impacted: Anyone classed as an employee.

What employers will need to do: Employers will need to update their HR policies and procedures to account for these new rights.

You can find more information here.

Paternity leave requests

Date of change: 6 April 2024

What’s changing: Non-birth parents will have more flexibility around when to take their two-week statutory paternity leave, allowing them to take it at any point in the child’s first year. This leave can be split into two separate blocks of time, rather than having to take two weeks together, allowing the non-birth parent to choose what works for their family.

The period of notice an employee will need to give about their leave is also changing to 28 days, down from 15 weeks. Notice of entitlement, however, stays at 15 weeks before a baby is born.

Statutory paternity pay will also increase slightly in April, from £172.48 to £184.03

Who’s impacted: Anyone classed as an employee.

What employers will need to do: These changes will affect employees with babies expected to be born on or after 6 April 2024 and children expected to be placed for adoption on or after 6 April 2024. Companies will need to update their paternity leave policies to reflect these changes.

You can find more information here.

Statutory carer’s leave

Date of change: 6 April 2024

What’s changing: From 6 April, any employee with caring responsibility for a dependent will be eligible to take one week’s unpaid carer’s leave per year.

As with the change to flexible working, this will be a "day one" employment right. In this case, dependents include a spouse, civil partner, child, parent, or anyone who relies on that employee for care for long-term care needs.

The leave can be taken in consecutive or non-consecutive days, half and full days and up to a whole week of leave at one time. This leave cannot be declined by an employer but can be postponed for up to one month should it disrupt the needs of the business.

Who’s impacted: Anyone classed as an employee.

What employers will need to do: Employers should ensure their policies and procedures are kept up to date, or introduce a new policy to cover this change.

You can find more information here).

Changes to IR35

Date of change: 6 April 2024

What’s changing: IR35, which stands for Inland Revenue press release issue no. 35, is an anti-tax-avoidance legislation introduced in April 2000 to ensure the correct amount of tax would be paid concerning contracts between an independent worker (contractor) and their client.

Where a business engages a contractor outside IR35, the new rules allow HMRC to collect an estimate of the difference between the outside IR35 taxes already paid and the subsequent inside IR35 tax that is due.

This figure can recovered from either party or the fee-paying client, which is usually a recruitment agency. It essentially allows HMRC to collect the right amount of tax for the engagement without tax being paid twice.

Who’s impacted: Contractors.

What employers will need to do: Any employers working with IR35 contractors will need to continue to ensure that they are compliant with the rules and regulations surrounding these kinds of employees.

You can find more information here.

A ban on withholding tips

Date of change: 1 July 2024

What’s changing: From summer, those in the service industry who are eligible for tips will have a right to get them in full without any deductions. Employers will have a duty to ensure that all qualifying tips are "allocated fairly" to workers.

Who’s impacted: Employees in the service industry who are eligible for tips.

What employers will need to do: If not already implemented, employers with staff who receive tips will need to ensure that their policies and practices reflect this change.

You can find more information here.

Requests for predictable working patterns

Date of change: From September or October 2024

What’s changing: For employees with an unpredictable working pattern or those on a fixed-term contract of 12 months or less, such as agency workers, this change provides the right to request more predictable terms and conditions for the work they do.

Eligible workers will be allowed to make two such requests in a 12-month period, however, the requests may be declined by employers due to statutory grounds.

Who’s impacted: Any employees with unpredictable working patterns or on a fixed-term contract of 12 months or less.

What employers will need to do: Once this is made a right, employers will need to be ready to hear and process any requests they receive and deal with them within a month of the application.

You can find more information here.

A proactive duty to prevent sexual harassment at work

Date of change: October 2024

What’s changing: This change is an amendment to the Equality Act 2010, and introduces a duty of care for employers to take reasonable steps to proactively prevent the sexual harassment of their employees in the course of their employment.

Should an employee take their employer to an employment tribunal and the tribunal considers the employer has failed to take “reasonable steps”, it will have the power to uplift compensation by up to 25%.

Who’s impacted: Anyone classed as an employee.

What employers will need to do: Ahead of October, employers will need to review their existing policies, procedures and training to ensure that they are compliant.

You can find more information here.

Statutory neonatal care leave

Date of change: Between October 2024 and April 2025

What’s changing: The parents of newborn babies who are hospitalised in their first 28 days of life for seven or more days will have the right to take neonatal leave and pay for up to 12 weeks. Anyone taking this leave will also be entitled to return to the same job after their absence.

It’s expected that the pay will be statutory, or, if lower, 90% of the average weekly earnings.

Who’s impacted: Anyone classed as an employee.

What employers will need to do: Employers should ensure that their policies and procedures are up to scratch should this need to be enacted.

You can find more information here.