April Employment Law Changes

Introduction

There has been some confusion with regard to changes to employment law taking place in April 2011, given government decisions at a late stage to repeal or delay certain expected legislation. The below seeks to clarify in basic terms what legislation is and is not now taking effect in April 2011.


Legislation Not Taking Effect in April 2011

The Right to Request Flexible Working

Currently the right exists to request flexible working to enable an employee to care for a child under 17 or a disabled child under 18. The right to request flexible working was to be extended to parents with children under 18. This right was to take effect in April 2011. However this is not now to happen.

Bribery Act 2010

This was expected to come into force in April 2011. However its implementation is to be delayed until July 2011 so that the government can issue guidance on what procedures might amount to appropriate anti bribery procedures to protect employers from criminal acts of their employees.

Specific Public Sector Equality

The specific public sector equality duties will not be implemented in April but are expected in July 2011.

Dual Discrimination Under the Equality Act

These provisions are not being implemented.

Right to Request Time Off For Training

The right to request time off for training is not being extended to employers employing less than 250 employees.

Legislation Taking Effect in April 2011

Additional Paternity Leave 6.4.11.

Where a baby is due or matched for adoption after 3.4.11. then the mother/adopter will be able to transfer up to 26 weeks of the maternity/adoption leave to the father or partner. The father or partner cannot start this additional paternity leave earlier than 20 weeks after the birth/adoption placement and must take it before the child is one year old. If the mother/adopter in returning to work has at least 2 weeks worth of SMP/SAP remaining then this entitlement to receive payment transfers to the father or partner. As with maternity leave there is a procedure of notification and other rules and criteria that must be met and or followed.

Default Retirement Age 6.4.11.

The default retirement age is phased out. This means if appropriate notification was not given to retire an employee before 6.4.11. then it will be more problematic to retire an employee. Any such dismissal will need to be objectively justified and will need to follow an appropriate procedure.

Positive Action Under The Equality Act 6.4.11.

In certain circumstances an employer will be able to select a candidate with a protected equal opportunities characteristic over a candidate without such a characteristic where the two candidates are as qualified as one another for a position. As qualified as one another does not simply mean having the same formal qualifications.

General Public Sector Duty 6.4.11.

The general public sector equality duty comes into force. This requires public bodies to have due regard to the need to eliminate unlawful discrimination, and to advance equal opportunities.

Statutory Payments

The rate of Statutory Sick Pay increases to £81.60 per week. (6.4.11.)

The basic rate of Statutory Maternity, Adoption, Paternity Pay increases to £128.73. (3.4.11)

Only 1% of Employees Bring a Claim to an Employment Tribunals

There has been much talk of a claims culture and businesses being overrun with employment tribunal claims. To some degree the media created picture is misleading in that the figures being used (236,100 claims in 2009-10) include a number of large scale class actions which artificially inflate the figures. In addition these figures arose in a recessionary climate.

However even using the figures published by the tribunal service as they stand they reveal that less than 1% of the working population brought a claim against their employer in 2009-10. So while the number of claims as a free standing figure may be high, it is the case that statistically very few of the 29, 000, 000 employees working in the economy actually brought a claim against their employer last year.

Nevertheless the government has published a consultation document on reforming access to the employment tribunal system; “Resolving Workplace Disputes: A Consultation”. The proposed changes are based on the belief that more needs to be done to support and encourage parties to resolve disputes earlier, and to try and preserve the working relationship between employer and employee. But where the relationship is broken to enable the parties to bring matters to a close in the quickest and least painful way.

One of the proposed changes most publicised is that the service qualification for claiming unfair dismissal may be increased to 2 years. This has been welcomed by employer organisations. However on the government's own assessment this will at best reduce the number of claims by 4,700 per year and so will not have a particularly significant impact on the figures.

It may be that such changes are being mooted for reasons of political capital rather than for assisting in a drive for growth and freeing up employers from regulation.

There has been a number of attempts in the past at making the tribunal system more efficient and seeking to reduce the number of claims registered at tribunal. The most recent such attempt being the introduction of the statutory disputes procedure which seemed to have the opposite effect. So it remains to be seen as to whether the proposed changes published by the government will have the desired impact if they are adopted.  

 

Will It Be Easier To Dismiss Employees

I was just completing the company employment law update to send out to clients when it was reported to day (1.11.10.) that the coalition government are considering extending the service requirement to claim unfair dismissal from one year to two years. This on the face of it might bring some welcome relief for employers, but in reality will it make any practical difference?

Many employers in the first year of service will have taken remedial steps or terminated the employment of someone who they deemed to be unsuitable. In addition regardless of length of service there are something in the order of about 90 other claims an individual can bring against an employer to an employment tribunal, including unlawful discrimination on the basis of any of the nine protected characteristics and also unfair dismissal on one of the range of automatically unfair dismissal claims detailed with in the Employment Rights Act 1996.

So the service requirement change may bring limited assistance. Indeed it might increase the possibility of discrimination claims where no service requirement is needed.

However no doubt it will be of a talking point in employment law and employer circles in the coming months. Any clients are readers who need help in this area should not hesitate to call email or call us at enquiries@shieldhr.co.uk or 024 7669 3606.

June Blog

This month is a busy month with us helping clients with a variety of matters, including reorganisations, reviewing policies and disciplinary procedures, advice work and conducting employment tribunals. The work continues to cover the spectrum of the economy in terms of the client's area of commercial activity and size of organisation. Most of our SME clients are around the Coventry area but our national clients which form the bulk of the work are of course across the country.

The work we are conducting still tends to include a high level of employment tribunal work and our thinking is this will probably not alter, particularly with the effects of the public sector cuts on the way.

We continue to produce free guides for clients and contacts and have received a significant number of requests for these guides. The requests have come from a variety of sources including HR professionals from large companies, HR consultants and some solicitors.

Our latest newsletter includes a guide on the law relating to employment contracts and clarifies some of the confusion that reigns on the issue of amending contracts of employment. Anyone who wants a copy of this should simply e-mail me at robert.kerr@shieldhr.co.uk

For more information on the company please visit our website www.shieldhr.co.uk

Well we finally know the outcome of the general election and we now have a coalition government. It is early days and one cannot be sure on the precise impact the coalition government's policies are going to have on the area of industrial relations and employment law.

However the government does intend to start to introduce the cuts and efficency savings set out in the conservative manifesto. This will no doubt be met by opposition by public sector trade unions and so we are likely to see industrial unrest in this area of the economy.

Private sector employers may also need to focus on cost control and efficiency as the public sector cuts impact on the economy generally.

Of course the new coalition government have a different attitude to Labour on employment law. Reports are that the coalition government has already set out that it will work to limit the application of the Working Time Directive in the UK and that it intends to phase out the default retirement age of 65.

No mention has yet been made of changes to the newly passed Equality Act. However the conservatives when in opposition suggested they would not adopt the socio-economic duty, or the new positive action provisions. In addition they were opposed to certain equal pay amendments.

So we will have to wait and see.

However, it seems that one way or another it will be an active time for those in the employment law and industrial relations field.

We are in the process of updating our guide notes on dealing with industrial action in anticipation of client demand. In addition it seems that there will probably still be a high level of tribunal activity. Our anecdotal experience is that there is still a heavy tribunal case load in the system. Indeed we have had a few cases postponed at the last minute by the tribunal service as they have insufficent resources to deal with the workload.

With austerity measures and the increase in cases that are anticipated by the Equality Act it does not seem things will get any easier.

If any readers want any employment law support or to subscribe to our free guides or newsletter then contact me at robert.kerr@shieldhr.co.uk or tel 024 7669606.

In terms of legislative change April is always a busy month and so this month on top of dealing with the normal combination of work - advice, drafting documentation, employment tribunals, and on site projects - we are also assisting employers with understanding the legislative changes.

We have produced a free guide on the new Fit Note for clients or contacts who want a copy and a significant number of individuals from the HR community have been requesting a copy of this guide.

We have also produced a short guide on the Equality Bill which is now proceeding to Royal Assent and we anticipate this Bill will become an Act effective from 1.10.10. This will introduce a major change and employers will need to review their policies and consider their training needs to accommodate the changes introduced. Fortunately the changes are 6 months away, but it would be unwise to delay thinking how this important piece of legislation will affect employers. So we have started now.

In addition our free guide on the Top 25 Cases All HR Managers (And HR Directors Should Know) is still a continuing favourite and the feedback is that this has been a helpful reference tool.

Our April Newsletter deals with the key legislative changes taking effect this month as well as the forthcoming Equality Act.

For any readers interested in receiving our free guides and or our free newsletter and or who need employment law support then they should not hesitate to contact me on robert.kerr@shieldhr.co.uk or tel 024 7669 3606.

Regards

Robert Kerr

Consultancy Director