Redundancy Policy and Procedure - January 2024

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Appendix 1

Redundancy protection period during pregnancy and return from family leave.

From 6 April 2024, employees who are pregnant or returning from maternity, adoption or shared parental leave will gain priority status for redeployment opportunities in a redundancy situation.

Under the current law, employees on maternity leave, shared parental leave or adoption leave already have special protection in a redundancy situation. They have the right to be offered a suitable alternative vacancy, if one is available, before being made redundant. This gives employees on these types of leave priority access to redeployment opportunities over other redundant employees.

The Protection from Redundancy (Pregnancy and Family Leave) Act 2023 extends the priority status to pregnant employees and those who have recently returned from maternity/adoption leave and shared parental leave. The government has now published the regulations setting out how the new rights will work in practice and bringing the rights into force from 6 April 2024.

Who is protected and when?

 

Length of protection
Pregnant employee who takes maternity leave Start: When the employer has been notified of pregnancy
End: 18 months from the child’s date of birth if notified to employer before the end of maternity leave (or 18 months from the Expected Week of Childbirth if not notified) (Includes any time spent in this period on maternity leave or other statutory leave)
Employee who has suffered a miscarriage Start: When the employer has been notified of pregnancy
End: Two weeks after the end of the pregnancy, for pregnancies ending before 24 weeks.
Note: Pregnancies ending after 24 weeks are classed as stillbirths and the employee would be entitled to statutory maternity leave (see above).
Employees taking adoption leave Start: Beginning of adoption leave
End: 18 months from date of placement or date of entry into Great Britain (if overseas adoption).
(Includes any time spent in this period on adoption leave or other statutory leave)
Employee taking shared parental leave Note: If the employee has also taken maternity or adoption leave, the above periods apply instead.
Start: Beginning of SPL
End: If less than six weeks of SPL is taken, at the end of SPL. If more than six continuous weeks of SPL is taken, 18 months from child’s date of birth (inclusive of any time spent on statutory leave).