Premier Legal

1st February 2009

The Employment Rights (Increase of Limits) Order 2008 SI 2008/3055 increases the limits on certain employment tribunal awards and other amounts payable under employment legislation from 1 February 2009.

April 2009

The National Insurance Contributions Act, will allow the Government to increase the Upper Earnings Limit and align it with the start of the higher rate of income tax.

April 2009

The Employment Act 2008 , which received royal assent on 13 November 2008:

• repeals the statutory dispute resolution procedures

             implements a package of replacement measures to encourage      early/informal resolution via Acas;

• strengthens the NMW enforcement regime;
• Clarifies and strengthens employment agency standards to address some of the concerns about vulnerable workers; and
• amends trade union membership law (in light of the European Court of Human Right's judgment in Aslef v UK) so that trade unions can expel members on the basis of their membership of a political party.

April 2009

Extension of the right to request flexible working to parents of children up to 16 years old. The Government has stated that it will consult on how this is to be implemented.

1st April 2009

Increase in statutory minimum paid holiday entitlement from 4.8 to 5.6 weeks (24 to 28 days for those working a five-day week). More details on the Government's proposals are available on the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform website.

6th April 2009

Employers with 50 or more employees must send certain in-year PAYE information in online. This includes Form P45(1) - details of employee leaving; Form P45(3) - new employee details; Form P46 - employee without a form P45; and similar information for people receiving a pension.

2009

The Equality Bill, is contained within the DLP Government's Draft Legislative Programme (DLP) 2008/9 and will consolidate existing equality legislation. Details of the content of the proposed Equality Bill have been recently outlined in 'Framework for a Fairer Future - The Equality Bill' including:

• positive action to allow employers to take under-representation into account when selecting between two equally qualified candidates.
• outlawing pay secrecy clauses in employment contracts and make it unlawful to prevent employees from discussing their pay
• wider powers for employment tribunals to make recommendations in discrimination claims, so that recommendations can apply to the whole workforce and not just the successful claimant. Failure to comply with such recommendations could be taken into account in any further claims against the employer;
• create a single equality duty on public sector employers. This will include duties in relation to gender reassignment, age, sexual orientation and religion or belief, in addition to the current duties in respect of race, disability and gender; and
• outlaw age discrimination in the provision of goods and services.

2009

Agency workers to get equal rights. The Government have indicated that they will give effect to the revised Temporary Agency Workers Directive as soon as possible in the next session of Parliament. The Directive accommodates the arrangement reached by the CBI, TUC and Government that agency workers should receive equal rights after 12 weeks.

More information on the revised Directive can be found here.

2009

Tips paid through payroll will not count towards NMW The Government has indicated that it will prevent employers using tips or service charges to bring workers' pay up to the level of the national minimum wage.

2009

Changes to the Working Time Directive. Although the 48- hour maximum working week opt-out has so far been retained, it has been voted against by a committee of the European Parliament. New safeguards in the revised text include preventing workers from opting out in the first month of employment, a cap of 60 working hours and measures relating to 'active' and 'inactive' call time.

2009

Changes to the European Works Councils Directive (No.94/45) The proposed changes aim to increase the use of EWCs and address the lack of certainty currently found in some parts of the Directive. The proposed means to achieve this include new definitions of information and consultation, and an obligation that arrangements for informing and consulting employees must be defined and implemented to ensure the effectiveness of the procedure and decision making process.

1st August 2009

Weekly working time limit for junior doctors reduced from 56 to 48 hours in accordance with the Working Time (Amendment) Regulations 2003.

October 2009

Single vetting system for checking the suitability of potential employees to work with children and vulnerable adults will start to be phased in. The system will be introduced under the Safeguarding Vulnerable Adults Act 2006. More information is available on the Every Child Matters website.

Autumn 2009

Critical Workers Identity Card introduced From Autumn 2009 identity cards will be introduced starting with workers at London City and Manchester airports. More information can be found on the Identity and Passport Service website.

By April 2010

Proposed extension of paid maternity and adoption leave to 12 months, some of which will probably be transferable to the partner. More detail is available on the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform website.

19th May 2010

Small employers (those with up to 49 employees in a PAYE scheme) required to file end of tax year payroll returns (forms P14 and P35) online.

2010

Right to request training for all employees who have been employed for not less than 26 weeks. The right will work in a similar way as the right to request flexible working does currently.