Key Employment and Immigration changes 2023

Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill 

Under the Bill, government departments would have until the end of 2023, at the earliest, (a so-called “sunset period”) to decide if EU retained law should be retained or be repealed. 

 

Protection from Redundancy (Pregnancy and Family Leave) Bill

Current redundancy protections for mothers on maternity leave would be extended to expectant mothers and parents on adoption and shared parental leave.  The protections will also continue – it is expected - for a further six months after employees have returned from maternity, adoption and shared parental leave. 

 

Neonatal Care (Leave and Pay) Bill 

Parents of a child receiving (or who has received) neonatal care will be entitled to one week’s leave.  Neonatal leave will be a day one right as well as giving employees protection from dismissal or detriment.  Expect a further right to receive statutory neonatal leave pay to be introduced presumably calculated in the same way as other statutory leave payments. 

 

Carer’s Leave Bill

Employees with care obligations to receive a minimum of one week’s unpaid carer’s leave every year. Carer’s leave will be available as a day one right as well as giving those who exercise the right protections from dismissal or detrimental treatment. 

 

Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Bill 

Employers would be obliged to take reasonable steps to prevent employees from suffering harassment at work from third parties (e.g., clients or customers) as well as a new duty to take all reasonable steps preventing employees from being sexually harassed “in the course of their employment”. Expect compensation penalties.

 

Employment (Allocation of Tips) Bill 

Employers would have to allocate all qualifying tips etc fairly between workers as well as have a written policy explaining their allocation process.  Employers to retain receipt and allocation records – and to share these records if requested.

 

New Code of conduct on ‘Fire and re-hire’ expected 

Expect a new code requiring employers to hold “fair, transparent and meaningful consultations” with employees where it proposes to change employment terms and conditions. Expect the code to have “teeth” with courts and employment tribunals being able to uplift compensation for successful claimants if the code is not followed reasonably.

 

Changes to the right to strike 

Watch this space.  Proposed new legislation has been announced focusing on the transport sector.  Also expect proposals with regards to minimum service level requirements in specific areas of the public sector such as ambulance drivers. 

 

Changes to flexible working on the horizon 

Expect flexible working to become a day one right (removing the need for the 26 weeks’ qualifying service); the procedure timeline to be reduced to 2 months (from 3) and employees being able to make 2 statutory requests a year (as opposed to 1). 

 

Data protection – a new UK Digital Information Bill 

A proposal to replace the UK’s current data protection framework with a new bespoke UK set of data protection rules.

 

New exemption to the Immigration Skills Charge 

From January 2023, a new exemption to the Immigration Skills Charge (ISC) will come into effect, whereby users of the Global Business Mobility: Senior or Specialist Worker will not be required to pay the ISC on EU nationals transferring to the UK for up to 3 years. This new exemption will introduce a potential cost saving of up to £3000 per employee, therefore, if you regularly move staff from the EU to the UK, this could represent a significant cost saving.

 

Comment

Certainly, there are changes afoot.  Whilst there have been confirmed changes to statutory rates of pay and the National Living/Minimum Wage, many are proposals with exact timetables for changes to be announced.  Want to hear more about the changes and how these could affect your business? Sign up for our January webinar on 24^th January 2023: What’s New in Employment Law