Ison Harrison, The Yorkshire Law Firm

Transcript

00:00I'm Ben Palmer from Eysen-Harrison Solicitors. I'm a partner and I head up the corporate

00:07employment team at Eysen's.

00:09We've asked to come and talk to you today about some of the new employment laws that

00:14are coming to effect in April this year. Can you tell us a bit about these laws?

00:20Sure. So there's a number of changes. The first is the introduction of neonatal leave.

00:27So if a child is born and the parents need some time off from their employer to take

00:36care of the baby because the baby has perhaps been born prematurely, that type of thing,

00:41then there is now a right for them to be able to take that leave.

00:45There is similar family-friendly rights as well that are being changed.

00:50So one is parental leave. So that is leave that a parent can take up to the child's age of 18.

00:59And that's unpaid leave.

01:02The other is paternity leave. Currently an employee has to be employed for 26 weeks prior to

01:11being entitled to take that leave. That is now going to be a day one right.

01:17There was also going to be changes to SSP entitlement and making the qualifying period for that

01:24day one rather than having a three-day waiting period. However, it's become less clear as to when

01:31that's going to be implemented according to the recent government consultation.

01:36And what sort of services and work will Eysen Harrison be doing with employers and employees

01:44to help them navigate these new changes?

01:47Since Labour came in there has been a raft of changes. There were a number of changes last year.

01:53We ensure that our clients' policies and procedures are up to date to make sure they are compliant with the law.

02:02We also guide them through the changes that are going to be happening.

02:07There is particularly going to be a lot of changes expected in 2026.

02:12We're working with our clients now about what they need to be doing in terms of planning their business for change

02:19to make sure that if those changes do come in that they're protected as far as possible.

02:25Can you just tell us a little bit about Eysen Harrison as well, the company and how long they've been working in Leeds and across Yorkshire?

02:34Eysen Harrison has been going for many years.

02:39It is an employee-owned company which means that each member of staff effectively owns part of the company, which is really nice.

02:49It has a very employee-focused feel to the firm.

02:55We've been growing substantially over the last couple of years and I think we've got about 21 offices at the moment within the Yorkshire area.

03:07This work around employment law will be covering across Yorkshire and Leeds?

03:13Yes, we've got international clients and they have a retainer with us.

03:19They pay a monthly direct debit and for that we will provide them with advice and support.

03:28We also have an insurance policy, so if there are any claims by employees then they can benefit from that insurance policy

03:38and the policy will indemnify them for any claims including any legal advice in relation to that.