Enhanced family-friendly rights for UK employees

We had been expecting an Employment Bill this year that would introduce several new family-friendly rights. Its absence from the Queen’s Speech in May cast doubt on whether the government would pursue those reforms. 

It is now clear that the government will use Private Members’ Bills to extend protection for those with caring responsibilities for children or other family members. Over the summer the government confirmed that it would support the Neonatal Care (Leave and Pay) Bill. On 21 October it announced its support for two further Bills.

Redundancy protection

In 2019 the government said it would address pregnancy and maternity discrimination by giving employees who were pregnant or who had recently returned from maternity, adoption or shared parental leave the right to be offered available suitable alternative employment if they were at risk of redundancy. Currently, only parents who are at risk of redundancy while they are on leave are entitled to be offered alternative employment.  

The government will now support the Protection from Redundancy (Pregnancy and Family Leave) Bill. This gives the government the power to extend the circumstances in which an employer must offer an employee suitable alternative employment if it is available.

According to the government press release, once is passed, the government will make regulations that require employers to make such offers to:

• Women at risk of redundancy once they have told their employer they are pregnant, or following a miscarriage; and
• Parents who have taken maternity, adoption or shared parental leave if they are at risk of redundancy within 18 months of a child’s birth or adoption.

It is not clear when new regulations are expected to come into force.

Unpaid carer’s leave

The government also promised to introduce a week’s unpaid carer’s leave for employees with caring responsibilities. It will support the Carer’s Leave Bill, which allows employees to take up to a week’s leave each year to provide or arrange care for a dependant with a long-term care need.

Although the detail of how the right will operate will be provided through regulations, it appears that:

• A long-term care need will relate to an illness or injury lasting at least three months, a disability or old age;
• It will be possible to take leave in periods of a day or half a day; and
• There will be some notice requirements employees have to observe before taking leave.

If the Carer’s Leave Bill completes its passage through Parliament, it is expected that the new right will come into force in 2024.

Authored by Jo Broadbent and Stefan Martin.