Employment Law Update
By Kate Palka
Currently, parents have a right to 18 weeks of unpaid parental leave for each child up to 18 but no right to any other unpaid carer leave.
The Carer’s Leave Act 2023, enacted on 6 April 2024, gives carers a new entitlement from day one to take up to one week of unpaid leave each year to provide or arrange care for a dependant with a long-term care need.
It also gives protection against detrimental treatment or dismissal connected to taking leave.
Employers will have some flexibility about how they wish to implement the new right e.g., whether the week is divided into days, the rules around providing notice to the employer and the employer’s right to delay the leave should the request interfere with its business needs.
The Act covers dependants (not just family) who are ill or injured for at least three months, or who are disabled, or have care needs relating to old age.
Rules on taking leave
- Employees need to give their employer notice.
- If the request is for half a day or a day, the notice period must be at least three days.
- If the request is for more than one day, the notice period must be at least twice as long as the requested leave.
- The request does not have to be in writing.
- Employees do not need to provide evidence of the dependant’s care needs.
- Employers cannot refuse a carer’s leave request but can ask the employee to take it at a different time, if the employee’s absence would cause serious disruption to the organisation.
If they delay it, the employer must:
- agree another date within one month of the requested date for the leave;
- put the reason for the delay and new date in writing to the employee within seven days of the original request, and before the requested start date of the leave.
Practical steps
Employers can:
- Update or create policies to inform employees of the new right and the logistics of requesting and taking it.
- Create a “self-certification” form for employees to complete, declaring that they meet the legal definition of a carer and will be using the leave in that capacity.
- Introduce a system of record-keeping to track the number of days taken. Employers may also wish to consider what further support they can provide for employees as a result of this data.
- Inform people managers of the new right, sensitivities around the topic and legal protections around it.
- Start thinking about whether you want to enhance these new rights e.g., by offering pay for some or all of an employee’s entitlement.
Get in touch
We are always adding to our employment law resources on the Insights page of our website, so have a look there to discover more. Our Your People guide is also worth downloading. It contains guidance on how to develop a living people strategy that works for both employees and business.
And, if you would like our help with implementing best practice in your business, please get in touch on 020 3056 8538 or info@thelegaldirector.co.uk.
