Last updated 7th November 2024

We’ve created this tracker to keep you up to date with all the latest developments in Employment & Immigration law – please bookmark it to make sure you don’t miss our latest posts. You can see what’s on the horizon at a glance by clicking on the video or use the links below to see a summary of the current status.

Please note that this material has been published for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.

Recent Updates

• The Employment Rights (Amendment, Revocation and Transitional Provision) Regulations 2023
• Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act 2023
• Autumn Budget 2024

Key Legislation

• Employment Rights Bill
• Neonatal Care (Leave and Pay) Act 2023
• Legislation to limit the length of non-competes
• Pensions (Extension of Automatic Enrolment) Act 2023
• Paternity Leave (Bereavement) Act 2024

Key consultations

• Four consultation papers have been published following the release of the Employment Rights Bill on: (i) the application of zero-hours contracts measures to agency workers (link here), (ii) strengthening remedies against abuse of rules on collective redundancy and fire and rehire (link here), (iii) creating a modern framework for industrial relations (link here), and (iv) strengthening statutory sick pay (link here).

The Employment Rights (Amendment, Revocation and Transitional Provision) Regulations 2023 and the Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act 2023 have now come into force. For those interested, we’ve published standalone blogs here and here on some of the key takeaways from this legislation, including the practical implications of the changes to holiday pay calculations for irregular workers and the implications of an employer’s duty to take “reasonable steps” to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace.

Moving on to the Autumn Budget, a major takeaway was the announcement that employer National Insurance contributions (NICs) will increase from 13.8% to 15% starting 6 April 2025. The threshold for when employers begin paying NICs on workers’ earnings will also be reduced from £9,100 to £5,000 per year.

The government also revealed plans to raise the National Minimum Wage (NMW) and extend the National Living Wage to those aged 18 and over, which is currently only available to those aged 21 and over.

From 1 April 2025, the new rates for NMW will be:

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The Labour government’s Employment Rights Bill will implement 28 employment law reforms, including:

• establishing day-one rights for unfair dismissal (subject to a new statutory probationary period), as well as for paternity, parental and bereavement leave;
• zero-hours workers will be entitled to guaranteed hour contracts reflecting hours worked;
• “fire and rehire” practices will be restricted by making it automatically unfair to dismiss an employee for refusing to agree to contractual variations (unless an employer can show evidence of financial difficulties and demonstrate that the need to change the contractual terms was “unavoidable”);
• minimum service levels legislation and parts of the Trade Union Act 2016 will also be repealed;
• both the waiting period and the earnings limit for statutory sick pay will be removed;
• flexible working will be made the default for all, unless an employer can prove it is unreasonable; and
• large employers will be required to create equality action plans addressing gender pay gaps and to support employees through the menopause.

For those interested in learning more, we recently published a blog which provides more detail and includes our view of the proposed provisions here.

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Key points

The Act received Royal Assent on 24 May 2023 and will allow eligible employed parents whose new-born baby is admitted to neonatal care to take up to 12 weeks of paid leave. This is in addition to other leave and pay entitlements such as maternity and paternity.

Date of entry into force

Expected April 2025.

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Key points

The previous Conservative government had confirmed that it would introduce a statutory limit on the length of non-compete clauses of 3 months and bring forward legislation to introduce the statutory limit “when parliamentary time allows”. It is now unclear when (and if!) the Labour government will take this forward.

Date of entry into force

TBC.

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Key Points

The Pensions (Extension of Automatic Enrolment) (No 2) Bill 2023 received Royal Assent on 18 September 2023. The Act will amend the Pensions Act 2008 to implement two key recommendations made by the Department of Work and Pensions in their 2017 independent review of auto-enrolment. Regulation-making power will be introduced to: (i) reduce the lower age threshold for auto-enrolment; and (ii) reduce or repeal the amount of the lower limit of the qualifying earnings band.

Date of entry into force

The substantive provisions of the Act will come into force on a day appointed in a statutory instrument made by the Secretary of State. Therefore, it is not possible to provide a timescale for implementation.

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The Paternity Leave (Bereavement) Act received Royal Assent on 24 May 2024. The Act itself makes provisions about paternity leave in cases where a mother, or a person with whom a child is placed or expected to be placed for adoption, dies.

Although not set out in the Act itself, there is also an intention for additional regulations to provide for a bereaved father or partner to have 52 weeks’ paternity leave available during the first year of their child’s life, from the day on which the mother or primary adopter of the child has died.

Date of entry into force

Regulations are needed to bring the Act into force.

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On 21 October 2024, the Department for Business and Trade launched several consultations on:

• the application of zero hours contracts measures to agency workers (link here);
• strengthening remedies against abuse of the current rules on collective redundancy consultation and fire and rehire (link here);
• strengthening statutory sick pay (link here); and
• creating a modern framework for industrial relations (link here).

The consultation on zero-hours contracts, fire and rehire and creating a modern framework for industrial relations closes on 2 December 2024. The consultation on Statutory Sick Pay closes on 4 December 2024.

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