Employment Law Update April 2024
Greater protection for those that are pregnant or on maternity leave, adoption leave and shared parental leave from being made redundant.
New Regulations come into force on the 6th April 2024, the Maternity Leave, Adoption Leave and Parental Leave (Amendment) Regulations 2024. These Regulations extend the current legal protections that are in place from redundancy. Currently, where a redundancy situation arises when an employee is on relevant leave (i.e. maternity, adoption or shared parental leave) the employer is required to offer the employee a suitable alternative vacancy where one is available, over and above any other colleague. This protection will now be extended by the amended regulations so that it applies:-
- During pregnancy – the redundancy protection will start when the employee tells their employer about the pregnancy.
- There will be a period of additional protection after maternity leave. For those taking maternity leave the additional protected period will be 18 months after the baby is born. For those taking adoption leave the additional protected period will end 18 months after the placement of the child. For those taking six or more consecutive weeks of shared parental leave the additional protected period will end 18 months after the date of birth of the child.
These Regulations mean that employers will need to take extra care when considering redundancy situations where they have an employee afforded this protection. Failing to comply with the regulations is likely to amount to unlawful discrimination and any dismissal arising as a result of a redundancy when the regulations have been ignored would give rise to an unfair dismissal claim.
Jennifer Carpenter, our Specialist Employment Solicitor can give further legal advice to employers and employees about the Regulations and redundancy situations generally and can be contacted at [email protected]
