Extension of protection from redundancy from 6 April 2024

The Maternity Leave, Adoption Leave and Shared Parental Leave (Amendment) Regulations 2024 will come into force on 6 April 2024.

The amendments extend existing protections that apply to employees when redundancy situations arise where an employee is on maternity, adoption or shared parental leave.

For those taking maternity leave, protection starts when the employer has been notified of the pregnancy and ends 18 months from the child’s date of birth (if notified to the employer before the end of maternity leave) or 18 months from the EWC, if not notified.

Similar protection is extended for those taking adoption leave.

An employee who has a miscarriage before 24 weeks, will be protected for two weeks after the end of the pregnancy.

Employees taking SPL will be protected from the beginning of leave until the end of SPL (if less than 6 weeks’ leave is taken).  For those taking more than 6 continuous weeks of SPL, protection lasts 18 months from the child’s date of birth.