Agenda item

To provide members of the Human Resources and Council Tax Committee with an update on several key legislative changes in the UK during 2024, which focus on family-related policies, protection from harassment, and reforms in flexible and predictable working.

The Committee was told that there were several important updates to employment legislation that would take effect in 2024, including: improved rights to flexible working, a new statutory leave entitlement for carers, enhanced rights for workers, and greater employers’ obligations to prevent sexual harassment.

-       Holiday pay and working time for Workers (not employees) – effective from 1 January 2024: Holiday pay calculations would be simplified. Employers could now elect to implement a lawful ‘rolled-up’ holiday pay scheme for leave years commencing on, or after, April 2024, so long as employers used an uplift of 12.07% against a worker’s normal rate of pay in the previous pay period in respect of their 5.6 weeks’ statutory holiday entitlement rather than calculating and paying holiday for when it was taken.

-       Equality Act 2010 effective from 1 January 2024: The Equality Act 2010 would be amended to incorporate certain discrimination protections derived from EU law, such as indirect discrimination by association, amended definition of disability, extension to direct discrimination protection, discrimination on the grounds of breast feeding, and equal pay comparator.

-       Paternity leave – effective from 8 March 2024: Paternity leave would be amended to allow fathers to take the two-weeks leave in two separate blocks, extend the period within which the leave could be taken, and change the notification periods.

-       Flexible working rights – effective from 6 April 2024: Employees would be able to request flexible working arrangements from day one of their employment. Employers would have to consider requests and provide reasons if they were rejected. Employees would also be able to make two requests per year and employers would have to respond within two months. The measures would be supported by an updated Acas statutory Code of Practice, which would come into effect in April 2024.

-       Minimum Wage Apprentices – effective from 1 April 2024: The National Minimum Wage would increase to £6.40 for apprentices aged 19 or over 19 and in the first year of their apprenticeship; that would increase to the National Minimum Wage thereafter.

-       Redundancy protection – effective from 6 April 2024: Employers would have to offer suitable alternative employment, if available, to employees who were pregnant, had recently suffered a miscarriage, or were on family leave for up to 18 months from the expected week of the child’s birth, the day of the childbirth, or the date of placement. Family leave covered maternity, adoption and shared parental leave.

-       Carers Leave Act – effective from 6 April 2024: That would introduce a statutory entitlement to one week of flexible unpaid leave per year for employees who were caring for a dependent with a long-term need. Carers Leave would be available to eligible employees from the first day of their employment.  Employees would be able to take Carers Leave in either half or whole days, up to a maximum of one week per year, without providing evidence of how the leave was used or who it was used for.

-       Sexual harassment prevention – effective from October 2024: Employers would have to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of their employees during their employment. That would include providing regular anti-harassment training, implementing clear policies and procedures, and taking appropriate action against perpetrators. This Authority already took a very strong position in that regard.

-       Workers’ right to request a more predictable contract – effective date September/October 2024: That change would give workers and agency workers the right to request more predicable terms and conditions of work where there was a lack of predictability to their work pattern and to those on a fixed-term contract of 12 months or less. A minimum service requirement to access the right, expected to be 26 weeks, would be specified in the regulations. Employers must deal with a request in a reasonable manner and notify the worker of their decision within one month. It would be possible to make two applications in a 12-month period, and applications could be rejected on statutory grounds.

Members were reminded that the relevant people policies and procedures would be updated to reflect the above changes, in line with the delegations afforded to the Assistant Director (Partnerships), under Part 3, Schedule 2 of the Council’s Constitution, which authorised that Officer to make “minor amendments to Human Resources Policies and Procedures necessary as a result of legislation, national guidance or best practice”.

It was moved by Councillor Guglielmi, seconded by Councillor Skeels Jr and unanimously:-

RESOLVED that the Human Resources and Council Tax Committee noted the contents of the Officer report, including the anticipated changes that would be made to the Authority’s people policies and procedures by the Assistant Director (Partnerships), in consultation with the Chairman of the Committee.