It’s that time of year, when Business Link Magazine invites the region’s business leaders to offer up their predictions for the year ahead.
It has become something of a tradition, given that we’ve been doing this now for over 30 years.
Here we speak to Simon Bond, Director at Bond Legal Limited.
There is no doubt that 2024 looks set to be a year of change and uncertainty in relation to HR and employment law.
Employers will need to grapple with a substantial quantity of new legislation that is expected to come into force throughout the year. A combination of new rights for employees and additional duties for employees include:
- changes to the way in which employees can make flexible working requests;
- additional protections from redundancy for pregnant employees and those on maternity and other family leave;
- a new right for carers to take one week’s unpaid care leave each year;
- the statutory right for those on zero-hour contracts to request a more predictable working pattern;
- a new duty on employers to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment;
- the introduction of 12 weeks’ paid leave for the parents of babies in neonatal care;
- changes to the rules around the calculation and payment of holiday pay;
- provisions allowing direct consultation with employees under the TUPE regulations; and
- increases to the rates of the national minimum wage.
Further legislative change is likely as a General Election looms. If the Labour party win, they have pledged to introduce an Employment Rights Bill within their first 100 days of office, which is likely to unveil far reaching changes.
I predict that the economy will also have a significant impact within the workplace next year. According to the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas), 30% of employers may make redundancies in the next year as a result of financial challenges, so it’s a good idea to get your employee handbooks up to date so that both employers and employees know where they stand on all HR matters.
It will no doubt be another interesting year ahead.
For more information on protecting your organisation with Employment Law and HR Consultancy expertise, visit Bond Legal at https://www.bondlegal.co.uk/.
