New redundancy protections for pregnant women and new parents

Charlotte Holman, a specialist employment solicitor, takes a look at the changes coming into force in April, affecting redundancy protections.

The Protections from Redundancy (Pregnancy and Family Leave) Act 2023 came into force on 24 July 2023. This legislation contains a provision for regulations to be made to extend the current right to be offered suitable alternative vacancies in a redundancy situation for employees on maternity, adoption or shared parental leave (relevant leave) so that it would apply during pregnancy and for a period after taking relevant leave.

From 6 April 2024, new legislation under the Maternity Leave, Adoption Leave and Shared Parental Leave (Amendment) Regulations 2024 (SI 2024/264) (the ‘MASPA Regulations’) will extend the statutory right to be offered a suitable vacancy in a redundancy situation (where one is available) to pregnant women and also to new parents who have recently returned from any period of maternity or adoption leave, or from a period of 6 or more weeks of shared parental leave.

To summarise, the regulations provide the following additional redundancy protections for pregnant women and new parents:

Pregnancy and Maternity/Adoption Leave

• Protection for an employee will commence when the employee notifies their employer about their pregnancy and will end 18 months after the child’s birth. If the pregnancy ends and the employee is not entitled to statutory maternity leave then the protected period will end two weeks after the pregnancy.
• Similarly, protection is extended for those employees who are adopting. This will increase to 18 months after the child’s placement or the date they enter Great Britain in the case of an overseas adoption.

Shared parental leave

• For those employees taking 6 or more consecutive weeks of Shared Parental Leave (SPL) but have not taken maternity or adoption leave, the protected period ends 18 months after the date of the child’s birth or placement (or date they enter Great Britain). If the amount of SPL taken is less than 6 weeks then the protection will only apply to the employee during the period of SPL.

It should be noted that the new redundancy protections will only apply to those returning from maternity/adoption or shared parental leave on or after 6 April 2024 or where the employer is notified of pregnancy after that date.

Holmes & Hills have specialist employment law solicitors with experience in guiding businesses through redundancy and reorganisation processes and can provide assistance on how the new changes may impact upon any future reorganisation or redundancy exercise. We can also offer support and advice to employees who may have queries regarding a redundancy process.