Employment Corner: Employment Updates for Hotels, Hospitality & Leisure Sector (April 2024)

In each edition of Check-In we explore the latest developments in Employment law and their importance to the Hotel, Hospitality & Leisure sector. In this edition, we will look at some updates from the UK, including:

• Labour’s proposed changes to “worker” status and unfair dismissal law
• New holiday pay rules
• Employment law changes from 6 April 2024, including changes to paternity leave, unpaid carer’s leave, redundancy protection and right to request flexible working. 

Labour’s proposed changes to “worker” status and unfair dismissal law

The next general election in the UK is now less than year away, and the opposition have published an Employment Rights Green Paper outlining their commitment to radical reform of employment laws, if elected. The Labour Party have said they will prioritise re-shaping employment rights with a particular focus on “pay, security, inequality, and discrimination”, and they plan to do this by bringing forward a bill within the first 100 days of entering office. This “New Deal for Working People” covers increases in wages and Statutory Sick Pay, more robust Health & Safety obligations, flexible working rights, parental leave and support, and an expansion of trade union rights (amongst other proposals). However, perhaps the most interesting development for employers to take note of is Labour’s plan to consult on the creation of a single “worker” status and expand unfair dismissal protections to cover all “workers”. This change alone could have huge impact for hospitality sector employers.  This article examines the massive impact such proposals could have on employment rights in the UK, the subsequent changes that we could see in the UK labour market, and the effects these might have on employers operating in the UK. 

Decoding the new holiday pay rules

The UK government has passed the Employment Rights (Amendment, Revocation and Transitional Provision) Regulations 2023 (the “Regulations”), which came into force on 1 January 2024.

The Regulations contain some important changes to existing legislation, in particular in relation to the calculation of holiday pay, and holiday for “irregular hours workers” and “part year workers” (newly defined in the Regulations and highly relevant to employers in the hospitality sector, many of whom are likely to have large numbers of irregular hours workers).  Employers will need to consider the implications for their business and make any necessary adjustments.

In this article, written before the Regulations were passed into law, we consider the key changes in the legislation in relation to holidays and working time, and the steps that employers should be taking to comply.

Employment law changes from 6 April 2024

1. Paternity leave 

The government has amended paternity leave rights for eligible parents whose expected week of childbirth is on or after 6 April 2024.  Impacted employees will have the right to: 

• take their two-week paternity leave entitlement as two separate blocks of one week (currently they can either take only one week in total or two consecutive weeks); and
• take paternity leave at any time in the 52 weeks after birth (currently it must be taken within 8 weeks).

2. Unpaid carer's leave

The Carer’s Leave Regulations 2024 (the “Regulations”) give employees in England, Wales and Scotland a new entitlement to unpaid carer’s leave.  The Regulations provide that an employee who has a dependant with a long-term care need (as per the definition found in the Employment Rights Act 1996), may take one week’s unpaid leave in a rolling 12-month period to arrange for or provide care for the dependant. This leave can be taken as single days, half days or as a block of one week.

Employees will need to provide notice of twice as many days as the period they are requesting or three days, whichever is greater. Notice does not need to be in writing and crucially, employers are not entitled to request evidence in relation to the request.  Employers cannot reject requests, but they may postpone carer’s leave in certain circumstances, if they believe that granting the requested leave during the requested period would excessively disrupt business operations.

While on carer's leave, an employee retains all the benefits of their terms and conditions of employment, excluding remuneration, and continues to be bound by their contractual obligations (except insofar as those obligations are inconsistent with the right to take the leave). If there is a contractual provision for carer's leave, the employee can choose the more favourable of either the statutory or contractual entitlement.

As with other statutory leaves, an employee benefits from statutory protection against detriment or dismissal related to the exercise of their rights to carer's leave.

3. Extended redundancy protection during pregnancy and after maternity, adoption or shared parental leave 

New legislation will extend the existing rights of employees on maternity, adoption or shared parental leave to be offered suitable alternative vacancies in redundancy situations, so that employees would also benefit from these rights during pregnancy and for an extended period following their return to work.  

The extended period of protection will be referred to as the "additional protected period" and will apply in the following ways:

• Pregnancy: the additional protected period, during which the employee has the right to be offered available suitable alternative employment in a redundancy situation, will begin when an employee informs their employer about their pregnancy. If the employee qualifies for statutory maternity leave, the additional protected period during pregnancy concludes on the day statutory maternity leave commences. If the employee does not qualify for statutory maternity leave, the protected period ends two weeks after the end of the pregnancy.
• Maternity leave: the additional protected period ends 18 months after the expected week of childbirth unless the employee has communicated the actual date of their child's birth to the employer. In that case, the additional protected period concludes 18 months after the specified birth date.
• Adoption leave: the additional protected period ends 18 months after the child’s placement into care or the date they enter Great Britain.
• Shared Parental leave: in cases where parents are taking six or more consecutive weeks of shared parental leave only, the additional protected period starts ends 18 months after the date of the child’s birth, placement into care or entry into Great Britain.

In cases of pregnancy, the new rules will apply if the employee informs their employer about their pregnancy on or after 6 April 2024.  For cases related to a period following relevant leave, the new rules apply to maternity and adoption leave concluding on or after 6 April 2024, and to a continuous six-week period of shared parental leave commencing on or after 6 April 2024.

4. Right to request flexible working to become a "day one" right

Under new flexible working legislation:

• employees will have the right to submit two statutory requests for flexible working within any 12-month period, increasing the previous limit of one request per year; 
• employers will be required to respond to such requests within two months, down from the current three-month timeframe;
• employees will no longer need to have 26 weeks’ service to be eligible to make a request – it will become a “day one” right.

An updated ACAS statutory Code of Practice will complement these changes, and further guidance is scheduled for publication shortly.