The Employment Rights Bill: proposed changes to family friendly rights

The Employment Rights Bill 2024 (the Bill) introduces reforms to enhance family and pregnancy-related rights in the workplace. These changes aim to provide greater support and flexibility for employees, while also outlining new responsibilities for employers.

Below is an overview of the key proposals. Details of proposed changes to flexible working can be found in our article ‘The Employment Rights Bill; Flexible working to become the default?’.

Bereavement Leave

The Bill proposes to extend bereavement leave to a broader group of employees. Currently, statutory parental bereavement leave is a right available from day one of employment to parents who lose a child under 18 or experience a stillbirth after 24 weeks of pregnancy.

The new legislation will extend this to an entitlement to more general bereavement leave which will apply to the loss of a wider group of persons, yet to be defined.

While parents will remain entitled to two weeks of paid leave, other eligible employees will be entitled to one week of unpaid bereavement leave.

Statutory parental bereavement pay will continue to be payable where a child under the age of 18 has died but provision is not made for the wider class of bereavement leave to be paid.

Existing protections for those who have taken parental bereavement leave are to be extended to bereavement leave, such as the right not to suffer detriment and for dismissal for reasons relating to bereavement leave to be treated as unfair.

The Government has now also accepted the principle of bereavement leave for pre-24 week pregnancy loss and further discussions will take place with a view to the Bill being amended during its passage through the House of Lords.

Paternity Leave

The Bill seeks to make paternity leave a right from the first day of employment, removing the current requirement for an employee to have 26 weeks’ continuous service.

Additionally, employees will have the flexibility to take paternity leave after a period of shared parental leave, offering more options for families to manage their time off to care for their child.

Parental Leave

Statutory unpaid parental leave, which currently requires employees to have one year of continuous service, will become a day-one right. This will allow employees immediate access to up to 18 weeks of unpaid leave per child, up to the child’s 18th birthday.

As with paternity leave, the intention behind removing the service requirement is to align unpaid parental leave with other family leave entitlements.

The Government has indicated on a number of occasions that, further to the provisions in the Bill, it will be undertaking a review of parental leave entitlements.

Enhanced protection against dismissal in the case of pregnancy and family leave

The Bill aims to strengthen protections against dismissal for pregnant women and those returning from a period of statutory family leave.

Employees currently have protection related to redundancy dismissals during pregnancy, statutory maternity leave and for a period after the end of maternity leave up to 18 months after the baby’s birth. It is not expected that there will be any significant change in relation to the protected period or how the existing redundancy protection operates. However, regulations may extend the existing redundancy protections to include dismissal for all other reasons, save for in specific circumstances.

Regulations may also be made regarding dismissals following maternity, adoption, shared parental, extended paternity and neonatal care leave to provide protection after a period of such leave, rather than just during the leave period, as is currently the case. Again, the regulations will define the specific circumstances.

How employers can prepare for the changes

These reforms will necessitate a thorough review of existing family-friendly policies and practices.

Employers should prepare to:

• Revise employee handbooks and contracts of employment to align with the new rights and protections.
• Educate managers and HR professionals on the updated laws to ensure consistent and lawful application.
• Assess the potential impact of increased leave requests on staffing and productivity and develop strategies to manage these changes effectively.

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