Protection from Redundancy

The Protection from Redundancy (Pregnancy and Family Leave) Act 2023

Extended Legal protection from redundancy for pregnant staff

On the 24 May 2023, The Protection from Redundancy (Pregnancy and Family Leave) Act 2023 (the Act) received Royal Assent and will come into force on the 6 April 2024. Our Employment law team outlines the new rights and how this will affect your businesses’ employees.

What is the current position? 

Currently, employees who are on adoption, shared parental and maternity leave have special protection in a redundancy situation. Employers are required, if possible, to offer these “priority employees” suitable alternative employment in priority over other employees who are at risk of redundancy.

From the 6 April 2024

From the 6 April 2024, the right to priority employee status will be extended to:

• Pregnant employees who have notified their employer of their pregnancy on or after 6 April 2024. If the employee is entitled to statutory maternity leave, the protected period of pregnancy will end on the day the statutory maternity leave starts.
• Employees who have returned from adoption, maternity and shared parental leave and the baby was born or placed with them for adoption within the previous eighteen months;
• Employees who have notified their employer of their pregnancy and have had a miscarriage within the previous two weeks. If the pregnancy ends by miscarriage and they are, accordingly, not entitled to statutory maternity leave, the protected period ends two weeks after the end of the pregnancy. The Act also allows for the protected period of pregnancy to commence after the pregnancy has ended. This is to allow, for example, an employee who has miscarried before informing their employer of the pregnancy to access the redundancy protection they would have been entitled to had they first informed their employer.

The government has stated that this ‘will help shield new parents and expectant mothers from workplace discrimination, offering them greater job security at an important time in their lives’.

What does this mean for your business?

Failure to offer a priority employee a suitable alternative vacancy would give the employee a statutory claim for automatic unfair dismissal and, in some cases, a discrimination claim. It is, therefore, imperative for employers to identify priority employees when contemplating a redundancy process, to avoid becoming at risk of such claims.

Following the implementation of this Act, employers must update their family leave policies and redundancy procedures. Employers should also implement systems for identifying any potential suitable vacancies across their entire organisation, extending to any group companies.

Moreover, it is sensible for employers to offer training to managers or HR Professionals within the business to ensure they are aware of the change, should a redundancy situation arise.

How Kerseys Solicitors can help?

If you have any enquiries, please contact Annalie King, Partner and Head of Employment law team at Kerseys Solicitors. You can contact Annalie King or Rosie Brighty a Trainee Employment Law Solicitor by telephone at Kerseys Solicitors in Ipswich on 01473 213311, Kerseys Solicitors in Felixstowe on 01394 834557 or Kerseys Solicitors in Colchester on 01206 584584, alternatively can email us at [email protected] or visit our website and click “Call Me Back”.