THE EZHR WEEKLY UPDATE 22nd JANUARY 2024
In this week’s EZHR update, we talk all things….
✅ Flexible working guidance (finally!!)
✅ New arrangements for Paternity & Adoption leave
✅ ONS Update on Wages
Guidance on the changes to flexible working
The government has (finally) published the long-anticipated guidance about the new flexible working regulations that will take effect from April this year.
The government has completed its consultation on the defined code of practice, which means we now have clarity on what the process should be and there are a few interesting wrinkles that have come out through this process. The major points in the legislation are:
The employee does not need to explain what the effect of a flexible working arrangement would be on the employer;
They can make up to two requests within any 12 months (currently only one request per year can be made);
There is a greater obligation on employers to consult with the employee on their application;
The time in which an employer must decide on a flexible working application has been reduced from three to two months.
While the points above have been very clear since the legislation was announced, the question was how was this going to be managed as a process. The new code of practice has been published and the highlights that employers need to be aware of can be found here:
Employers must not reject a request without first consulting the employee. Employers should invite the employee to a consultation meeting to discuss the request.
The process should not take any longer than two months from the date of the submission to the completion of any appeal.
Employees should have formal notification in advance of any meeting to discuss their flexible working request.
The meeting should be held privately and should follow the same process and structure of a flexible working meeting if you are hearing it formally.
If the request cannot be accepted in full, the employer and employee should discuss if it may be possible to secure some of the benefits that the employee originally intended these should include;
any potential modifications to the original request,
alternative flexible working options,
whether a trial period may be appropriate to assess the feasibility of an arrangement.
The person holding the meeting should have sufficient authority to make a decision.
Meetings should be minuted and notes made available to all parties.
A decision should be confirmed in writing without unreasonable delay.
There is no statutory right of accompaniment at meetings. However, allowing an employee to be accompanied is good practice.
The new standards place a much bigger burden of work on employers with a more extensive process in ore situations. We will be updating our policies and documents to reflect these new changes
For those wanting to read the full code of practice from the government, you can find it here.
New arrangements for Paternity & Adoption leave
The government has now published the draft Paternity Leave (Amendment) Regulations 2024. If (as expected) the Regulations. The amendments come into effect from 8th March 2024 and apply where the Expected Week of Childbirth is 6 April 2024 onwards. While these are not significant, employers need to understand what this means. These changes are:
allow employees to choose between taking two non-consecutive weeks of paternity leave or a single period of one or two weeks.
allow employees to vary the dates of their leave, provided they give at least 28 days notice of the change.
allow leave to be taken at any time during the first year following the birth.
reduce the notice period required for each period of leave and pay to 28 days before each period of leave.
These changes will also apply to adoption leave, the only difference being that the notice period for adoption leave will remain unchanged, this will remain as the seven days of the adopter being notified of a match with a child.
ONS Update on Wages
ONS has confirmed that while pay has continued to outpace inflation in autumn 2023, it does seem to be showing signs of slowing down
Annual growth in regular earnings excluding bonuses in Great Britain was 6.6% from September to November 2023, while average total earnings including bonuses grew by 6.5%, according to the Office for National Statistics' January 2024 labour market figures.
This seems to be driven by a slower labour market in the last quarter of 2023, when the estimated number of vacancies in the UK fell to 934,000, down by 5% from the previous quarter.
While this isn’t an expansive change in the market it does point to a steady stabilisation of the job market, while there are still issues with available resources, it does appear to be slightly less competitive in the race for resources.
If you have any questions on these issues please don't hesitate to contact us at info@ezhr.uk or 0161 843 5678.
