Employment Law update for SME owners

As an SME owner, you are most likely a jack of all trades, handling some or all your business’s operations, from accounts, to marketing, to HR. It is critical the new employment law updates from 6 April 2024 are adhered to, to ensure your employees are receiving the pay or leave entitlements they are due. We’ve rounded up the key changes, likely to impact SME owners, to help you stay on top of the new legislation.

1. Flexible working requests

Employees are now able to make a flexible working request from day one, whereas they previously had to have worked for you for 26 weeks. Employees can also now make two requests per year, instead of one, and no longer are required to explain the effect the change in working pattern might have. As an employer, you will now have to consult with your staff and make a decision within two months of receiving the request. Flexible working includes: part-time, flexitime, compressed hours, term-time and varying working locations.

2.Statutory carer’s leave

This is a new law giving employees the right to take leave if they care for a dependent with a long-term care need, such as a person with a disability, an injury, old age-related issues, or an illness. Employees will be entitled to one week’s unpaid care leave per year and will be eligible to request it from day one. Employers will be able to postpone but not deny this request.

3.Legal protection from redundancy for pregnant staff and neonatal leave

As it stands, employees on maternity leave are protected from redundancy to a greater extent than other staff and now pregnant employees will have those rights and protection too. Pregnant employees must now be considered for suitable alternative roles before other employees. Failing to adhere to this could result in sex discrimination claims, uncapped compensation, and unfair dismissal claims. Employees are entitled to this from the day they inform you of their pregnancy, up to 18 months after the birth of their child.

Neonatal leave is also expected to be introduced in October for parents with babies in neonatal care. It will give these employees more time off, on top of maternity leave and paternity leave and they will be entitled to it from day one. The context for this is to provide parents with more time to spend with their babies out of the hospital as if your baby spent two weeks in neonatal care; this previously may have taken up all of an employee’s paternity leave.

4.Duty to proactively prevent sexual harassment in the workplace

Also expected in October is new laws to protect employees from sexual harassment at work. It will be a requirement to take proactive steps to prevent harassment, whether that’s through policies or training. You will need to be able to prove this if any claims are made or if employees were to complain to the Equality and Human Rights commission to report your company for not taking any steps.

5.National minimum wage rise

As usual, national minimum wage is rising, although a less usual change is the combination of the 21–22 year old’s band with the top band, previously for employees over 23 years old. You will need to make sure all your employees are in the correct band and their wages are adjusted to meet the new rates, which you can find on the government’s website.

Implementing these new changes

The next step is how to roll out these changes to your business, across all the relevant levels. You may need to review your leave request procedure; update your policies and create new ones where needed; offer training so your staff are aware of revised codes of conduct and can manage any new processes; and update your software to reflect the new processes and pay scales.

There are, of course, a number of other legal changes you may need to be aware of, so it is advised you undertake your own thorough research and speak with a professional adviser, if necessary.

We understand that dealing with changing laws can be overwhelming for SME owners who are often already at capacity, managing and growing their business. Keeping well informed on employment law is vital when you have a team and so ensuring you set aside enough time to understand and implement such change is important. Sourcing the right support can be extremely useful, and although an initial outlay might be required it can help pay you dividends in the long term, helping you to avoid making any mistakes.

If you are searching for flexible workspace which will support your SME, please get in touch.