Employment Law Updates 2025

Comes into force: 6 April 2025

The Neonatal Care (Leave and Pay) Act 2023 introduces the statutory right to neonatal care leave and pay for parents whose child is receiving neonatal care if the child is born on or after 6 April 2025.

To apply, the neonatal care must start within 28 days of the child’s birth and must continue (with no interruption) for at least seven consecutive days.

The new right to statutory neonatal care leave (SNCL) is a “day one” right, meaning there is no requirement for employees to have a certain minimum length of service before they are entitled to take the leave. The maximum leave allowed under the new legislation is 12 weeks, which can be taken in blocks of one week during the time that the employee’s baby is receiving neonatal care. The right to take SNCL ends in the 68^th week after the baby is born.

Statutory neonatal care pay (SNCP) will be available to those who meet certain requirements. Employees who have 26 weeks’ continuous service at their workplace (by the date the child starts receiving neonatal care), will be entitled to SNCP (provided they earn an average of £123 per week). The SNCP weekly rate will be the same as the statutory paternity pay weekly rate (the statutory flat rate – £187.18 from 1 April - or 90% earnings if lower).

The new right to SNCL and pay (if eligible) is additional to, and not in place of, maternity, paternity or adoption leave or pay. If an employee’s child is placed into neonatal care within the first 28 days of their birth, SNCL can be taken on top of their existing leave entitlements. This means parents can fully utilise both their maternity, paternity or adoption leave and SNCL (if required). In practice, this leave may be added on to the end of another period of leave and, as noted above, the right to take SNCL ends in the 68^th week after the child’s birth.

As with other types of family leave, certain protections will be afforded to those who need to take SNCL. These include protection from redundancy, protection from dismissal and the right to return to the same job (or, if unavailable, a similar suitable job).

Considerations for employers

• Think about updating your family leave policy or introducing a new policy specifically for SNCL and SNCP.
• Ensure you are familiar with the provisions of the new statutory right. Consider educating those with managerial responsibilities on how SNCL and SNCP will operate in practice.

As most employers will be aware, the Employment Rights Bill was introduced in October last year and represents the most significant enhancement of employee rights in a generation. Amongst many other reforms, the new legislation will reform the use of zero hours contracts, introduce “ day one” unfair dismissal rights, improve family friendly rights and strengthen the law around harassment.

Employers and employees alike will be hoping for more concrete details of the content of the new Bill, however a date for a third reading in the House of Commons is still to be confirmed as the Bill is still at ‘report stage’.

The following points are some of the proposed amendments to the Bill that were approved recently (this does not mean that they will be in the final Act, only that they move onto the next stage of the process):

Employment Tribunal Claims: the Bill seeks to extend the time limit claimants have to bring an employment tribunal claim to six months (from three months)

Zero Hours Contracts: there are several new amendments to this section.

• One amendment proposes that employers must give reasonable notice to workers concerning any changes to the time at which their shift is due to start or end. Employers must also give reasonable notice where there will be a reduction in the number of hours worked during the shift because of a break in the shift.
• The amendments also provide some context about the rights conferred by this section of the Bill. Specifically, the Bill places the onus on the employer to take reasonable steps within the initial information period (two weeks) to ensure that a worker, who it is reasonable to consider might become a qualifying worker in relation to a reference period, is made aware of their rights to be offered guaranteed hours after each reference period.
• The amendments explain several situations where a worker or employee may bring a complaint to the Employment Tribunal, including where an employer has failed to give notice that a guaranteed hours offer has been withdrawn.

Trade Unions: the Bill seeks to update the definition of “workplace” so that it excludes any part of a workplace that is being used as a dwelling in relation to the right of trade unions to access workplaces. The wording around trade unions has also been updated so that they are now defined as a ‘qualifying trade union’ that has a certificate of independence, rather than a ‘listed trade union’.

As ever, MBM will be keeping on top of the new developments to ensure we can provide you with the most up to date advice. We will also be running training sessions on the provisions of the Employment Rights Bill (and the steps employers should take to prepare) when we have more detail and clarity on these from Parliament. If you’d like to receive invitations to the training sessions as and when they’re scheduled, sign up below to be advised when the training goes live. In the meantime, if you have any questions or concerns about the new updates and how they might affect your workplace, please get in touch here.