As you will know from recent newsletters and HR briefings a number of legislative changes take effect from 6 April 2024. We will cover the issues again in our Trinity term newsletter and HR briefing (23 May 11-12 on MS Teams) but in the meantime here is a brief reminder of the changes and a note of the guidance that has been updated and where you can find it:
Paternity leave
For children born or placed for adoption after 6 April paternity leave can be taken either as a 2 week or as 2 x 1 week blocks. The period within which leave can be taken is extended from 56 days to 52 weeks after birth/placement. Notification periods have also changed. See the full updated guidance: Paternity leave.
Carers’ leave
Wef 6 April there is a new statutory entitlement to 1 week per annum unpaid carers leave – the leave can be taken in blocks of minimum half a day. The University already had a carers’ leave scheme offering up to 4 weeks unpaid leave per annum and the scheme guidance has been updated incorporating the new statutory entitlement, including making this a day one entitlement. See the full updated guidance: Carers Leave. As a reminder there is also up to 5 days paid leave per year to deal with ‘domestic emergencies and periods of acute caring needs’ (see Section 4 of the staff handbook )
Flexible Working
Most flexible working applications at Oxford continue to be made informally. But from 6 April employees wishing to make a formal flexible working request can do so from day one of employment and make 2 formal flexible working applications per 12 months. A reminder that it is good practice to consider whether any new posts that you will be advertising could be offered on a part-time basis, to ensure that the post is accessible to those who can only work part-time for eg family/caring or health/disability related reasons. Where it is concluded that the post is needed to a particular fixed-hour working pattern, it is advisable to record the reasons for this as this will allow you to respond promptly to any Day One requests. The periods within which applications need to be considered has been significantly reduced so that the process, including any appeal, needs to be complete within 2 months (currently 3 months). Finally, the information to be provided by the individual has also been simplified, and applicants no longer need to comment on the impact of their requested changed working pattern on the department. The full flexible working guidance has been updated including a new recommended time scale to deal with each stage of a formal request: Flexible Working.
Protection from Redundancy (Pregnancy and Family Leave) Act 2023
As you will be aware, those who are on maternity/adoption leave currently benefit from additional protections if their post is put at risk of redundancy (including reaching the end of a fixed term contract) and they should be given priority consideration for any vacancies for which they are suitable candidates. This means that they should be given special consideration including over other priority candidates for suitable vacancies, and that employers should make particular efforts to redeploy them. From 6 April, these protections are being enhanced and extended and will apply to those who are pregnant, on maternity/adoption leave, or a block of shared parental leave of at least 6 weeks, or who have returned to work from one of these forms of leave and are still within 18 months of the birth/placement of child. To note, in particular, that this protection applies even where the employee has less than the two years service which would make them eligible for redundancy payments. And also note that if an employee has been employed by your department for less than 2 years you may need to ask them if they fall into one of the protected groups. Be wary of assumptions and remember that shared parental leave can be taken by colleagues of any gender and any age, so do not apply a ‘best guess’ approach.
We have updated most of the guidance relating to redundancy, ending fixed term contracts and the family leave schemes. However, we are still working on the best way to manage the priority candidate arrangements for these groups. If you are using any of these processes please ensure that you refer to the most up to date version on the website, and not any downloaded local versions. Should you need to start end of contract or redundancy processes for an employee who has announced their pregnancy, is on maternity/adoption/shared parental leave (if the ShPL is 6 weeks min), or has taken one of these forms of leave and is within 18 months of the birth/placement of the child please contact the HR Policy team (via hr-support@admin.ox.ac.uk) so that we can give you appropriate template letters to use. The web-based resources will be updated as soon as possible.
Holiday pay changes
The other legislative change that takes effect from 6 April relates to holiday pay, but applies to holiday years which begin after 6 April. We are therefore planning to finalise the revised arrangements and communicate these during next term and over the long vacation ready for the start of the new holiday year in October. Further information will be shared at the Trinity term HR briefing (23 May 11-12am on MS Teams, information will be circulated in the TT newsletter to be circulated in week 1).
