From 6 April 2024, the Protection from Redundancy (Pregnancy and Family Leave) Act 2023 will come into force. This new legislation will ensure that employees who are pregnant or returning from maternity, adoption or shared parental leave are afforded priority status for redeployment opportunities in a redundancy situation.
Under the current law, employees on maternity leave, shared parental leave or adoption leave already have special protection in a redundancy situation. They have the right to be offered a suitable alternative vacancy, if one is available, before being made redundant. From the beginning of April, employees on these types of leave will have priority access to redeployment opportunities over other redundant employees.
This extends the priority status to pregnant employees and those who have recently returned from maternity or adoption leave and shared parental leave. The Government has now published the regulations setting out how the new rights will work in practice.
A pregnant employee who takes maternity leave will have protection from the date they notify their employer to eighteen months from the child’s date of birth, if notified to the employer before the end of maternity leave (or eighteen months from the expected week of childbirth if not notified). This includes any time spent in this period on maternity leave or other statutory leave.
An employee who suffers a miscarriage will be protected from the date they notify their employer of the pregnancy to two weeks after the end of the pregnancy.
Employees taking adoption leave will be protected from the beginning of their adoption leave for eighteen months from the date of the placement, or the date of entry into Great Britain if it is an overseas adoption. This includes any time spent during this period on adoption leave or other statutory leave.
For employees taking shared parental leave, they will be protected from the beginning of shared parental leave to the end of shared parental leave if less than six weeks is taken. If more than six continuous weeks of shared parental leave is taken the protection will last eighteen months from the child’s date of birth (inclusive of any time spent on statutory leave).
Although this legislation extends protection, this only gives employees priority for redeployment opportunities. It is not a ban on making employees redundant during the special protected period.
Feel free to contact our Solicitors if you need legal advice about how the new legislation could affect you.
Nicholas Febrer is a employment law solicitor here at DPH Legal. Nicholas has experience with a range of contentious and non-contentious employment disputes. Acting on behalf of employer clients, he advises on business immigration, redundancy situations, and consultancy agreements as well as regularly drafting employment contracts, settlement agreements, staff handbooks, and letters to employees engaged in disciplinary proceedings. Nicholas is a member of The Law Society and The SRA. To contact Nicholas, visit the Contact Us page. For media enquiries: info@dphlegal.com