Employment law changes from 1 April 2025
From 1 April 2025, a number of changes to employment rights are being introduced. These are new rights to:
- A written statement of employment particulars on day one of employment
- Time off work for partners to attend ante natal appointments
- Time off work to attend adoption appointments
- Time off work to care for dependants
Day one right to a written statement of employment particulars
All workers have a right to a 'written statement of employment particulars' – in other words a statement of the terms and conditions on which an individual is employed. Currently an employer is not required to provide a written statement within 4 weeks of employment. From 1 April 2025, any new worker employed after that date must be provided with a statement from day one of employment.
Time off work for partners to attend ante natal appointments
The partner of a pregnant woman will be entitled to time off on two occasions, on each occasion up to six and a half hours.
The right is to time off without pay, though employers may opt to pay the employee for the time off.
Time off work to attend adoption appointments
An employee adopting a child on his or her own will be entitled to paid time off to attend five appointments.
An employee adopting a child or children with another person (i.e. joint adopters) may elect for one of them to take paid time off to attend up to five appointments, while the other may take unpaid time off to attend up to two appointments.
The maximum time off for those appointments is six and a half hours.
Time off work to care for dependants
An employee will have a right to time off work to deal with an emergency involving a dependant.
The right is for a reasonable amount of time for the situation. There is no right to pay for this time off.
Dependants are a spouse or civil partner, a child or grandchild, a parent or grandparent, or a person who lives in the same household.
There is entitlement to time off in the following circumstances:
- If a dependant falls ill, or has been injured or assaulted
- When a dependant is having a baby
- To make longer term care arrangements for a dependant who is ill or injured
- To deal with the death of a dependant
- To deal with an unexpected disruption or breakdown of care arrangements for a dependant
- If a child is involved in an incident during school time
Whistleblowing
A number of changes to the whistleblowing regime are also coming into effect from 1 April 2025.
