Carer’s Leave Regulations 2024

15th December 2023 | Rachael Drane | Employment, Carer's Leave Regulations, Employment rights

The Carer’s Leave Regulations 2024 have now been laid before Parliament and sets out the statutory scheme, namely, The Carer’s Leave Act 2023, which is due to come into effect on 6 April 2024. The Regulations will apply to employees who give notice of an intention to take carer’s leave on or after 6 April 2024.

What are the key take away points from the new Carer’s Leave Regulations?

 An employee will be entitled to take one week of unpaid carer’s leave in any 12 month period, where they have a dependant with a long-term care need and want to be absent from work to provide or arrange care for the dependant.

• Importantly, the right will be a Day one employment right. 
• Employees will have the option to take the carer’s leave on consecutive days, non-consecutive days, half days or full days.
• Employees must give written notice of their intention to take carer’s leave, confirming their entitlement to take it. The notice requirement will be at least twice as many days as the period of leave requested.
• Employers will have a right to postpone a request if they reasonably consider that the operation of the business would be unduly disrupted. The employer must give notice of the postponement before the leave was due to begin and must explain why the postponement is necessary. The employer must then permit the employee to take carer’s leave (of the same duration) on a date determined by the employer after consulting with the employee, which must be within one month of the start date of the leave originally requested by the employee.
• Employees will be protected from detriment and dismissal because they choose to take, or seek to take, carer’s leave (or the employer believes they are likely to do so).

To find out more, contact the Employment team or Head of the Department, Mark Fellows.