The start of April saw a new set of employment laws come into force. Have your HR team kept up to date, or are you struggling to make sense of the changes? Keep reading to find out what's changed and what you need to do to keep up?
On 1st April, the statutory annual leave entitlement rose from 4.8 weeks to 5.6 weeks. This means that employers are now legally obliged to give staff 28 days a year off work.
Employers that do not allow workers the full statutory leave entitlement, or who offer employees payment in lieu when not taking the full statutory leave entitlement, may be ordered by an employment tribunal to pay compensation for breaching the Working Time Regulations. Existing employees who are not currently entitled to 5.6 weeks leave should be notified of the changes. On 5th April, the weekly rate of statutory maternity, paternity and adoption pay increased from £117.18 to £123.06, an increase of 5.01%.
On 6th April, statutory sick pay rose from £74.50 to £79.15, up 6.24%.
6th April also saw the right to request flexible working extended to parents of children aged 16 and under.
The 5% increase to the amounts of leave and sick pay is significantly above the rate of inflation and the RPI and so represents a real increase in the value of these benefits for employees. This will mean an increase in costs to employers particularly in respect of leave pay at a time when most businesses are looking to cut or at least to contain costs.
These increases have come at the wrong time for employers. With many businesses having to make redundancies and facing hard decisions about who should lose their jobs it may be that those who are seen to be taking a significant amount of leave which has to be paid for will be targeted. Of course employers who target such employees for redundancy run the risk of attracting claims for compensation for discrimination on grounds of sex or disability.
An employer who either fraudulently or negligently fails to implement the increases in payments is likely to find that HMRC will not hesitate to impose penalties for such conduct on them.
The 6th April also saw the new ACAS Code of Practice on Disciplinary and Grievance procedures coming into effect, which means that the statutory 3-step disciplinary and dismissal procedures will be repealed. The employment tribunals will now be able to adjust awards by as much as 25% if employers fail to reasonably comply with the new code.

The full ACAS guide can be found at: www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=2126

As of 6th April, there will be increased penalties for failure to pay the national minimum wage. Employers who have failed to pay the NMW will face a penalty of 50% of the amount of the underpayment. HMRC also gains powers to remove wage records for inspection, and to use search and seize powers when investigating criminal offences relating to the NMW.

(Courtesy The People Bulletin)