Law at Work: Hot topics

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April 2024 employment law changes

Summarised in January 2024's Law at Work various legislative changes include:

new right for employees with a caring responsibility for a dependant to take one week’s unpaid carer’s leave per year
increased flexibility on taking paternity leave
the right to request flexible working becoming a "day one" right
increased redundancy protection during pregnancy, on maternity leave, adoption leave and shared parental leave.

Proposal to re-introduce employment tribunal fees

The government has published consultation on "Introducing fees in the Employment Tribunals and the Employment Appeal Tribunal" which will run until 25 March, with a proposed implementation of November 2024. The key proposals are that claimants will pay a one-off £55 issue fee when making a claim to an employment tribunal, and a further £55 fee if they lodge an appeal to the EAT regardless of the nature of the claim. No separate hearing fee is proposed.

The government states that its proposals are underpinned by three key principles: affordability, proportionality and simplicity. The government has assessed the level of the fee as being generally affordable for individuals with support for those who cannot afford to pay and taking into account a 2017 Supreme Court judgment which held that the level of tribunal fees introduced between July 2013 to July 2017 were unlawful in that they effectively prevented access to justice and the fee structure was found to be indirectly discriminatory against women and individuals with protected characteristics.

A system for remission from fees will exist for those who genuinely cannot afford the fees and some limited exemptions.

Treasury Committee "Sexism in the City" report published

Coinciding with International Women's Day, the report was published earlier this month. Five years on from the previous enquiry, the MPs reflect on how much has changed and conclude "Disappointingly, the answer appears to be 'not much'."

Acknowledging that there have been incremental improvements since 2018, such as a marginal increase in the representation of women in senior positions and a small reduction in the sector's average gender pay gap, progress is still far too slow. The Committee MPs make recommendations that they believe are essential for tackling sexism and misogyny in financial services including:

legislation to ban the use of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) in sexual harassment cases
stronger protections for whistleblowers in sexual harassment cases
ban on prospective employers asking for salary history
legal requirement to include salary bands on job adverts
reduce the size threshold for gender pay gap reporting from 250+ to 50+ employees for firms in the financial services sector
businesses with wide gender pay gaps must explain the disparity and publish an action plan
regulators should drop their plans for extensive diversity data reporting and target setting
changes to the Women in Finance Charter including strengthening the link between executive pay, and performance on improving diversity.

Call for evidence on the Modern Slavery Act

The House of Lords Committee on the Modern Slavery Act 2015 (Act) has published a call for written evidence for its inquiry into the impact of the Act and its effectiveness in achieving its aims. It will consider whether the Act has kept up-to-date with developments in modern slavery and human trafficking, both within the UK and internationally, the efficacy of the provisions of the Act relating to supply chains and suggestions for improvements that could be made to the Act to help it to better achieve its aims. The deadline for submissions is 27 March.

ICO publishes guidance on handling employee data in mental health emergency

With the sharp rise of mental health issues in the workplace, it is timely that the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has published new guidance to make it clearer when employee health data may be shared in a mental health emergency. In particular, the guidance makes clear that data protection law is not a barrier to sharing data in appropriate circumstances. It recommends that employers should:

Develop a policy on sharing personal information in a mental health emergency, specifying who such information may need to be shared with and how it will be shared securely.
Ensure that workers are aware of the policy.
Train staff on how to handle personal information in a mental health emergency.
Ensure that workers keep their emergency/mental health contacts up to date through regular review.

It sets out useful examples of when it is likely to be appropriate to share data and sets out the conditions for lawful processing which will typically be at play in such situations.

April changes to rates and limits

April brings changes to statutory rates and limits, as well as changes to statutory maternity pay (SMP), statutory sick pay (SSP) and national minimum wage rates. From 6 April 2024 the following rates and limits will apply (where the effective date of termination occurs on or after 6 April 2024):

The limit on a week's pay (for the purposes of calculating a statutory redundancy payment or basic award) increases from £643 to £700.
The maximum compensatory award for unfair dismissal increases from £105,707 to £115,115.

SSP will increase to £116.75 per week.

SMP will increase to £184.03 per week.

From 1 April 2024, the national minimum wage rates will increase to the following:

National living wage (21 or over) £11.44.

£8.60 for 18-20 year olds.

£6.40 for 16-17 year-olds.

Apprentice rates - £6.40.

Immigration developments

UK Immigration changes on 4 April 2024 – the latest details

As we reported in our update on 25 January 2024 the Home Office has announced significant changes to the UK immigration system. This flows from the Home Office's five point plan to significantly reduce net migration announced in December 2023. On 14 March 2024, the Home Office released further details in a Statement of Changes which confirms some points which were not known in January 2024. Many of these changes come into effect on 4 April 2024. Further details can be found here.