Redundancy protection extended for family leave

The Maternity Leave, Adoption Leave and Shared Parental Leave (Amendment) Regulations 2024  have now been laid before Parliament.

The Regulations, which may be subject to change, extend the period of preferential treatment afforded to parents on maternity, adoption, and shared parental leave, with regard to being offered first refusal of any suitable alternative employment available if they are at risk of redundancy.

The Regulations extend the redundancy protection so that it also applies:

During pregnancy:

• The redundancy protection during pregnancy will start when an employee tells their employer about the pregnancy. If the employee is entitled to statutory maternity leave, then the protected period of pregnancy ends on the day the statutory maternity leave starts, and the redundancy protection will continue during statutory maternity leave as currently.
• If the pregnancy ends and the employee is not entitled to statutory maternity leave, the protected period ends two weeks after the end of the pregnancy. In these circumstances, the employer needs to be informed of the pregnancy before the protected period of pregnancy would have ended.

To new parents for a period after a qualifying period of relevant leave has ended (“the additional protected period”):

• For those taking maternity leave the additional protected period ends 18 months from the expected week of childbirth, unless the employee has informed the employer of the date of birth of the child. In that case the additional protected period ends 18 months after the date of birth of the child.
• For those taking adoption leave the additional protected period ends 18 months after the placement of the child.
• For those taking 6 or more consecutive weeks of shared parental leave but who have not taken maternity or adoption leave, the additional protected period ends 18 months after the date of birth of the child. For those taking less than six consecutive weeks, the current position will continue to apply, which means that the redundancy protection will apply where the redundancy situation arises during any period the employee is on shared parental leave.
• The additional protected period applies when the employee is not on qualifying “relevant leave” and runs for whatever remains of the 18 month period.