Monthly Highlights – UK Employment Law – January 2025

• The Neonatal Care Leave and Miscellaneous Amendments Regulations 2025 would allow up to 12 weeks of neonatal leave to parents if a child is admitted into neonatal care for at least seven days within the first 28 days after the child’s birth. The leave would be in addition to existing leave entitlements and must be taken within 68 weeks of birth. Neonatal care is defined in the regulations as covering medical care in a hospital, palliative or end of life care, or medical care in another location under the direction of a consultant and following inpatient hospital care.
• The Statutory Neonatal Care Pay (General) Regulations 2025 would introduce the right for parents to receive statutory neonatal pay at a weekly rate of either £187.18 or 90% of their normal weekly earnings (whichever is smaller). The statutory neonatal pay would be available only to those employees with 26 weeks of continuous service and who have earnings above the lower earnings limit (currently £123, but set to increase to £125 in April 2025). 

Facts:

• Addison Lee had faced previous claims from its drivers, which were upheld by an ET in 2017. Addison Lee appealed the decision, but the Employment Appeal Tribunal dismissed their appeal, and the Court of Appeal (citing Uber BV v Aslam and others [2021] ICR 657) refused permission to appeal.
• Addison Lee argued that the drivers in the current claim weren't workers in the way the drivers in 2017 were found to be, as they had introduced changes to their business model. These changes included new contractual terms allowing drivers to refuse jobs, the right of substitution, and the abolition of sanctions on drivers who refused jobs.
• Addison Lee also argued that the introduction in 2021 of 12-week fixed term contracts created breaks in service, which triggered limitation periods. 

Findings:

• The ET disagreed with Addison Lee and found that drivers renting vehicles from Addison Lee were workers when logged into the company's app, whilst drivers using their own vehicles were workers when they were accepting jobs, as they could log into other apps. Addison Lee's business changes didn't alter this status and were found to have “paid lip service only”.
• The ET also found that the introduction of fixed term contracts was specifically aimed at circumventing the statutory rights of the drivers.
• Accordingly, the ET held that the drivers were entitled to carry forward annual leave because they were considered workers.
• The ET also held that the two year backstop on unlawful deductions claims (which was a right derived from EU law) had only been imposed to ensure consistency between UK and EU law and that Parliament had not intended for it to limit the exercise of rights under domestic law. 

Takeaways:

• Although this is only a first-instance decision that may well be subject to appeal and is not binding on other courts, it is important for employers to bear in mind as it means that claims for holiday pay and national minimum wage could stretch back further than two years.
• An increase in the two year backstop could substantially increase the value of claims of this nature that are brought against employers (which in turn may increase their frequency). 

• On 7 January 2025, the Domestic Abuse (Safe Leave) Bill was presented to Parliament by Labour MP Alex McIntyre. The bill would introduce an entitlement to ten days of paid leave to those suffering from domestic abuse and is scheduled for a second reading on Friday 20 June 2025.
• Following a recent report published by the Women and Equalities Committee, there have been calls for amendments to the statutory miscarriage bereavement leave to expand the entitlement to those who suffer a miscarriage during the first 23 weeks of pregnancy.