The Protection from Redundancy (Pregnancy and Family Leave) Act 2023 will extend those protections to also cover a protected period of pregnancy and a period after the parent returns to work.
From 6 April 2024, the redundancy protection for:
- pregnant employees who take maternity leave will start from the date they notify their employer of their pregnancy and will end 18 months after either the child’s date of birth (if the employee has informed their employer) or 18 months from the expected week of childbirth (if the employee has not informed their employer of the date of birth).
- pregnant employees who unfortunately have a miscarriage will start from the date they notify their employer of their pregnancy and will end two weeks after the end of their pregnancy, if the pregnancy ends before 24 weeks. Pregnancies that end after 24 weeks are classed as stillbirths and the employee would be entitled to statutory maternity leave.
- employees on adoption leave will start when their adoption leave begins and will end 18 months from the child’s placement date or the date the child enters Great Britain (if it is an overseas adoption).
- employees on shared paternal leave (who have not taken maternity or adoption leave) will start when their shared parental leave begins and will end:
- At the end of shared parental leave, if the employee takes less than six consecutive weeks of shared parental leave.
- 18 months from the child’s birth date/placement date/date they enter Great Britain, if the employee has taken at least six or more consecutive weeks of shared parental leave.
These regulations give employees priority status if there are any suitable alternative vacancies. They do not prevent those employees from being selected for redundancy if there are no suitable alternative vacancies. Failure to offer employees with priority status suitable alternative roles, if they are available, may result in claims of automatically unfair dismissal and/or discrimination.
Source: Lexology
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