Employment Law changes for 2011

James Johnson, Employment Partner at Derby law firm Smith Partnership, advises local employers on what employment law changes to expect in 2011.

The year started with a change to national minimum wage rules, with payments for travel to and from a temporary place of work no longer counting towards minimum wage from 1 January 2011. As usual the rates for minimum wage are likely to increase in October 2011.

There are also a couple of important changes to family friendly legislation. Firstly from April, parents of children under the age of 18 will be entitled to request flexible working arrangements, for example, part-time hours. The right currently applies to parents of children under 17 (other than in the case of disabled children where the age of 18 already applies). It is projected that this will open up the potential for flexible working requests for thousands more employees. The normal arrangements will apply for dealing with a request, which will require objective and proper consideration. In addition, for babies due on or after 3 April 2011, mothers will be able to ‘transfer’ up to six months of their maternity leave to the father of the baby (or partner in a same-sex relationship). The same rules will apply for adoption leave.

Perhaps the most significant change for employers, is the proposed phasing out of the default retirement age from 6 April 2011. Currently an employer is likely to be able to fairly implement the retirement of an employee aged over the age of 65 provided six months’ notice of the intended retirement date is issued and the prescribed procedure is followed. It is proposed that this safe route to retirement will be closed off for any compulsory retirement occurring on or after 1 October 2011. As six months’ notice is a pre-requisite for a fair retirement dismissal, any such notices must be served upon the employee affected by no later than 31 March 2011.

A further significant change will affect agency workers. From 1 October, agency workers with 12 weeks’ service with an end-user will be entitled to the same treatment as permanent employees in relation to such matters as pay and working time. Other rights will also extend to remove disparate treatment including access to, for example, crèche facilities, if permanent employees are provided with such facilities. Further, from day one of an assignment an agency worker will have the right to be informed of any vacancies within the end user’s business.