From the 1st of April the National Living Wage (previously known as minimum wage)
will increase to £11.44 per hour
All employees being paid the Real Living Wage will be increased to £12.00 per hour.
As a RLW employer, we continue to always bid both a commercial rate and RLW rate for all clients in all bids.
Flexible Working
From 6 April, all employees will be able to make a statutory request to make a permanent change to their contract from their first day of employment.
Working flexibly enables opportunities to work that suits us and employee needs as flexibility is a key employee retainer in our industry.
Taking the feedback employees have provided we intend to update our Flexible Working Policy to reflect their thoughts on this.
Legislation allowing fathers or partners to split their statutory paternity leave into two blocks is now law.
This will apply in all cases where the expected week of childbirth falls on or after 6 April 2024, allowing paternity leave to be split into two blocks of one week at any point in the first year after the birth or adoption of their child.
For parents of babies born before 6 April, fathers or partners are only able to take one continuous block of paternity leave of one or two weeks within the first eight weeks after birth.
Under the amended legislation, the notice period required for each period of leave has been shortened to 28 days, or four weeks, instead of 15 weeks before the expected week of childbirth.
A new statutory carer’s leave entitlement comes into force on 6 April 2024, the legislation entitles employees up to a week of unpaid leave each year to look after someone who relies on them because they are ill, have an injury, are disabled, or have care needs because of their age.
This is a day-one right, meaning there is no requirement for a certain length of service.
Employees will be able to take up to an unpaid week every 12 months, with a ‘week’ meaning the length of time they normally work over seven days. This can be taken all at once, as half days or full days.
Carer’s leave cannot be used to provide general childcare but can be for a child who has long-term health or disability-related care needs. This is covered by unpaid parental leave.
Our intention is to put a policy in place to ensure everyone knows the rules and requirements of notice so that alternative arrangements can be made on site.