The Neonatal Care (Leave and Pay) Bill, Carer’s Leave Bill and Protection from Redundancy (Pregnancy and Family Leave) Bill received royal assent on 24 May 2023.
The Neonatal Care (Leave and Pay) Act
This act will create a day-one right to enable parents to take a period of up to 12 weeks’ paid neonatal care leave if their baby is required to spend time in neonatal care. This period of neonatal leave will be in addition to maternity, paternity or shared parental leave.
Neonatal care leave will be available to employees in the event their child aged no more than 28 days is admitted to hospital for a continuous stay of seven full days or more.
Neonatal care leave will be paid subject to the employee meeting the following conditions:
- 26 weeks of continuous employment
- A minimum weekly wage of £123
The Carers’ Leave Act
The act will give eligible employees who are also long-term carers and are responsible for dependants the opportunity to take up to one week (five working days) of unpaid leave a year to provide or arrange care for a dependant with long-term care needs.
The employee will be required to give notice twice the length of the leave. The leave can be taken flexibly in the form of half days, single days or a one-week block over a 12-month period. An employee’s dependants include the following:
- Their husband, wife, civil partner or partner;
- Their child;
- Their parent;
- A person who lives in their household (not tenants, lodgers or employees); or
- A person who relies on them, such as an elderly neighbour.
This leave will also be available to employees from the first day of their employment.
The Protection from Redundancy (Pregnancy and Family Leave) Act
Currently, employers are under an obligation to offer employees on maternity, adoption or shared parental leave suitable alternative employment (if possible) as a priority over other employees that have been provisionally selected for redundancy.
This act will extend the existing redundancy protection to cover any period of pregnancy (including miscarriage) and for a period of six months after the employee returns to work from a period of family leave including maternity leave, adoption leave and shared parental leave.
It is intended that this extension of the existing rights will enhance the protection and job security for pregnant employees and new parents returning to work after a period of family leave.
The exact date of implementation of these new laws has yet to be announced, and the government has stated that they will lay down secondary legislation in “due course.”