National minimum wage

The first, which hopefully you will already have on your radar, is the National Minimum Wage increase which takes effect from 1 April. The National Living Wage (the top band) will now apply to anyone aged 21 or over, whereas previously it had been those 23 and over. This is a notable change and may have a significant impact on your payroll costs.

If you are paying at or near these rates for any of your workforce, we would recommend a review to consider whether you are accurately capturing their “working time” as it’s easy to fall foul of these provisions, and technically pay under the rate in a pay period.

Flexible working

The rules in relation to flexible working applications are also changing on Sat 6 April 2024. The right to request to work flexibly will now be a day one right for all employees. Two requests can be made in any 12-month period, whereas they were previously limited to one. The statutory decision period is now two months, rather than three.

It’s important that employers review their procedures and any associated paperwork to make sure that they reflect these changes and ensure that anyone dealing with such requests are aware of the changes to process.

Carers’ leave

Regulations come into force on 6 April 2024 that will introduce a new statutory right for unpaid carer’s leave for employees in England, Wales and Scotland. Any employee who meets the eligibility criteria will be able to be absent on leave for the purpose of providing or arranging care for a dependent with a long-term care need. The leave can be taken in increments of half-days or individual days, up to a maximum of one week in total, over a 12 month period. A ‘week’ for the purposes of these Regulations means the number of days they normally work in a 7 day period. If someone normally works 4 days per week, they can take 4 days carer’s leave. If their hours are irregular, add the total number of hours in the previous 12 months and divide that by 52 (or the number of weeks that they have worked if less than 52).

Managers should be aware of these regulations and consideration given to how requests will be handled and recorded within your business.

Please note, there are different rules if the employee is a parent and the care relates to their child.

 Workers’ terms

The Workers Predictable Terms and Conditions Act will come into force in later this year. It aims to address the perceived “one sided flexibility” in worker arrangements. It sets out circumstances in which workers will have the statutory right to request a predictable working pattern.

Employers of workers, such as those in the hospitality sector, should consider reviewing their workforce over the summer and seek to recognise and prepare for where they may be impacted by these changes.

Sexual harassment

The new duty on employers to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace comes into force in October 2024.

While sexual harassment and associated less favourable treatment of an employee was already prohibited, the new Act requires employers to take “reasonable steps” to prevent harassment in the course of employees employment. This does not create a standalone claim that an employee can bring, instead it can be considered where a finding by a Tribunal of sexual harassment has been upheld.

Key steps in the prevention of sexual harassment include having a thorough policy and reporting procedure, providing appropriate training to staff and ensuring that all complaints are investigated appropriately.

Holiday accrual and pay – a simplification?

There are changes coming into effect for holiday years commencing on or after 1 April 2024.

These changes are designed to simplify the holiday accrual and pay for part year or irregular hours workers. It is important to individually assess workers in applying the new guidance, to ensure that you are adopting the correct calculation method to each group.

As ever, preparation in relation to each of these changes will be key and should you need any assistance in reviewing your existing policies and procedures, then please do get in touch.

Want more help or advice from Jayme and the team? Further information can be found here or by registering online for the Kitson Boyce Employment Newsletter.