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Employers embarking on redundancy or restructuring exercises need to be aware of significant changes from 6 April 2024 to UK redundancy rules which give priority protection to employees on maternity, adoption and shared parental leave (SPL).
The changes mean that the period of priority protection will extend to 18 months and will also apply to pregnant employees from the day they notify their employer of their pregnancy.
This is important because a failure to give priority protection can result in a redundancy dismissal being both automatically unfair and deemed discriminatory.
To understand how these protections apply see the table below;
| Start of Protection | End of Protection | |
| Pregnancy (which is followed by maternity leave) | When the employer is informed of the pregnancy | The date maternity leave starts (but protection then continues during and after maternity leave - see below) |
| Pregancy with baby loss before 24 weeks (NB employees who experience the loss of a baby after 24 weeks are entitles to maternity leave) | When the employer is informed of the pregnancy | Two weeks after the end of the pregnancy |
| Maternity Leave | Start of statutory maternity leave | 18 monthss after the expected week of childbirth (or the child's actual birth date if the employer is notified before the end of maternity leave) |
| Adoption Leave | Start of statutory adoption leave | 18 months after the child is placed with the employee for adoption (or enters Great Britain if it is an overseas adoption) |
| Shared Parental Leave | Start of SPL | 18 months after the child was born or placed with the employee for adoption, provided the employee has taken six or more consecutive weeks of SPL. If they have not, the protection applies only to the period they are on SPL. NO - If the employee has also taken maternity or adoption leave, those relevant protection periods apply rather than the SPL ones. |
For more information and advice please contact Pickerings Employment Solicitors on 01827 317070 or email jrobson@pickerings-solicitors.com
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The contents of this article are intended for general information purposes only and shall not be deemed to be or constitute legal advice. We cannot accept responsibility for any loss as a result of acts or omissions taken in respect of this article.
