Employment Edit: 21 March 2024

Changes to Immigration Rules

The Statement of Changes to the Immigration Rules published on 14 March 2024 makes significant changes to the Skilled Worker route, as well as changes to other immigration routes. In particular, substantially increased minimum salary thresholds will apply to new Skilled Worker visa applications where the Certificate of Sponsorship (‘CoS’) has been assigned on or after 4 April 2024 (save where transitional measures apply):

the general salary threshold will be increasing to £38,700 per year; and
the ‘going rate’ that is also required for the role in question is being increased in line with the median salary for that occupation.
Certain discounts to the salary thresholds will continue to be available for eligible roles/individuals, and those who make an application with a CoS that was assigned to them before 4 April 2024 will continue to benefit from the immigration rules in place before 4 April 2024.

In addition, individuals who were granted permission as a Skilled Worker under the rules in place before 4 April 2024 and have continuous permission as a Skilled Worker since that point will benefit from certain transitional arrangements up to and including 3 April 2030.

Importantly, the UKVI Sponsor Management System will be unavailable from 7pm on 2 April 2024 until 9am on 4 April 2024. Therefore, sponsors looking to take advantage of the existing, lower thresholds which apply where a CoS is assigned before 4 April will need to assign the CoS before 7pm on 2 April.

The Statement also confirms that a new Immigration Salary List (see here), will allow specific shortage occupations to benefit from a discounted general salary threshold (but the current 20% discount to the ‘going rate’ for these roles is being removed).

The majority of the changes will take effect from 4 April 2024. Employers will need to consider how these changes might affect employees currently on Skilled Worker visas or with limited immigration permission and the extent to which these changes might impact their recruitment strategy moving forwards. To understand more about how these changes might affect your business, please contact Katie Hayes or Hannah Malone.

Redundancy protection for pregnant employees and family-leave returners

Regulations have been passed which extend certain redundancy protections to a wider category of employee from 6 April 2024. The requirement to offer suitable alternative vacancies (where available) to certain employees in a redundancy situation has been extended to cover:

• pregnant employees who inform their employer of their pregnancy on or after 6 April 2024;
• employees who have returned from statutory maternity or adoption leave, where that leave ends on or after 6 April 2024; and
• employees who have returned from at least 6 consecutive weeks of statutory shared parental leave (and are not already covered by the maternity and adoption protection), where that leave starts on or after 6 April 2024.

Pregnant employees will be protected from the point at which they inform their employer of their pregnancy, whilst eligible parents returning from maternity, adoption or shared parental leave will be covered for 18 months after the expected week of childbirth, the date of placement for adoption or the date of the child’s birth (depending on their particular circumstances).

As well as factoring in this extended protection when planning any restructuring exercises, employers will also need to have adequate record-keeping arrangements in place to enable them to identify all employees entitled to be offered suitable alternative vacancies should a redundancy situation arise.

Paternity changes

Regulations were passed last week which will provide more choice and flexibility around how and when statutory paternity leave is taken. For children whose expected week of birth begins after 6 April 2024 or expected placement for adoption is on or after 6 April 2024, eligible fathers and partners will be able to:

take the leave at any time in the first year after birth or placement for adoption, rather than in the first eight weeks; and
take the leave in two separate one-week blocks, rather than having to decide between taking one week only or taking two weeks of leave in one block.
The notification requirements have also changed so that less notice is required of the dates of leave.

Employers need to prepare for these changes, including amending their paternity leave policies and checking that their payroll and time & attendance systems are ready for the changes. If we can help you prepare for these changes, please do get in touch with your usual Burges Salmon contact.

Parental leave and unfair dismissal

The EAT has held that there is no strict requirement for an employee to have given formal notice of their intention to take parental leave to benefit from protection against dismissal on the ground that they sought to take parental leave.

The claimant had informal discussions with his line manager and HR about taking parental leave and later informed the respondent’s managing director that he would be seeking parental leave. The claimant did not make a formal written application for parental leave. Around a month later, he was dismissed by reason of redundancy. The claimant brought a claim alleging that he had been automatically unfairly dismissed as he contended that the real reason for his dismissal was that he sought to take parental leave. The respondent argued that he had not sought to take the leave as he had not given notice to take it and so his claim should be struck out.

The tribunal refused to strike out the claimant’s claim, and the EAT upheld this decision. In order to demonstrate that he ‘sought to take’ parental leave, it was not an absolute requirement that the claimant must have given the relevant notice – other factors were relevant to the question of whether he ‘sought to take’ the leave. The claim will now return to the tribunal.

(Hilton Food Solutions Ltd v Wright)

Compensation limits increased

The usual annual increases to compensation and statutory payments will soon take effect. From 6 April 2024, two key new limits are:

• the limit on a week’s pay for the purpose of calculating statutory redundancy payments and basic awards – £700 (up from £643); and
• the limit on a compensatory award for unfair dismissal – £115,115 (up from £105,707).

The new rates will apply to dismissals that take place on or after 6 April 2024.