The Carer’s Leave Act 2023
The Act will introduce a new and flexible entitlement of one week’s unpaid leave per year for employees who are providing or arranging care and will be available to eligible employees from the first day of their employment. They will be able to take the leave flexibly to suit their caring responsibilities and will not need to provide evidence of how the leave is used or who it will be used for. Employees will also be protected from dismissal or any detriment as a result of having taken time off.
The new entitlement to statutory carer’s leave will rely on the carer’s relationship with the person being cared for, which should broadly follow the definition of dependant used in the legislation concerning right to time off for dependants – a spouse, civil partner, child, parent, a person who lives in the same household as the employee (other than by reason of them being their employee, tenant, lodger, or boarder) or a person who reasonably relies on the employee for care. It will also depend on the person being cared for having a long-term care need. This will be defined as a long-term illness or injury (physical or mental), a disability as defined under the Equality Act 2010, or issues related to old age. There will be limited exemptions from the requirement for long-term care, for example in the case of terminal illness.
Those taking carer’s leave will be protected from detriment, and dismissals for reasons connected with exercising the right to carer’s leave will be automatically unfair.
The legislation has no date of implementation as yet, so watch this space!