Government finally lays legislation to scrap the Family Worker Exemption

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Five months after ATLEU’s success at the Employment Appeal Tribunal, which confirmed the unlawfulness of the ‘Family Worker Exemption’, and following sustained coalition campaigning with partners, the government has finally taken measures to implement its March 2022 commitment to scrap the Exemption from National Minimum Wage regulations.

Draft National Minimum Wage (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2023 have now been laid before Parliament, which will remove the Exemption from 1 April 2024. The Regulations will need to be debated and approved by both Houses of Parliament before becoming law.

ATLEU is delighted that this legislation has finally been laid. The Exemption allowed employers to avoid paying the National Minimum Wage, or any wage at all, to their live-in domestic and childcare workers, if the worker is ‘treated as a member of the family’.

It has long served as a loophole for the exploitation of mainly female workers. ATLEU has litigated and campaigned for its removal for over 10 years because it was so frequently used as a defence by abusive employers.

ATLEU thanks our client, Mrs Puthenveetil, whose bravery over 10 years in pursuing her case, resulted in the ground breaking judgments at the London South Employment Tribunal in 2020, and again at the Employment Appeal Tribunal in April 2022, successfully challenging the lawfulness of the Exemption.

Our thanks also go to instructed counsel, Akua Reindorf of Cloister Chambers and all our coalition partners for campaigning with us against the Exemption over the years. Together, we look forward to the Regulations being passed into law.

For more information on the Family Worker Exemption information, please see: