Agency workers - ACT NOW!

The Agency Worker Regulations 2010 will come into force on 1 October 2011. If your business utilises the services of agency staff then you need to act now and consider the implications of the Regulations.

In short, the Regulations will give agency workers the right to the same basic working and employment conditions as your permanent staff after three months service. Agency workers will also be entitled to equal access to on-site facilities, such as car-parking and crèche facilities, and information on permanent vacancies from the first day of their engagement.

Louise Haward is a specialist Solicitor within the Employment team. For more information on any of the topics covered in this newsletter, call 01332 225 383 or email louise.haward@smithpartnership.co.uk

Additional paternity leave and pay

As part of the Coalition Government’s plans for an extension of family friendly rights parents of babies born on or after 3 April 2011 (and adoptive parents notified of a match on or after that date) have extended rights for additional paternity leave and pay. Employers will start to see the effect of this extension soon. The change will enable eligible employees the ability to take up to 26 weeks’ paternity leave with additional paternity pay if the mother or primary adopter returns to work early.

Employers should watch out for future developments as the Government appears keen to introduce a more flexible system of sharing parental leave with the aim of this being introduced in 2015. How this can be practically implemented will be awaited with interest.

Rate rises

From the 3 April 2011 we have seen the annual weekly rates for statutory maternity, paternity and adoption pay and maternity allowance rise to £128.73. From the 6 April 2011, statutory sick pay also rose to £81.60 a week.

Following the annual tribunal award rise in February 2011 we also saw the rise of a week’s pay used to calculate statutory redundancy to £400 and the maximum compensatory award for unfair dismissal was increased to £68,400.

Good news for employers…

Despite all the recent changes in employment law there is some good news for employers:

Flexible working- plans to extend this right to parents with children under 18 have not come into force and the right remains available only where a child is under 17 (or 18 if the child is disabled);
Start-up and small businesses with fewer than 10 employees will not have to comply with new domestic regulation for a three year period for domestic laws due to commence from 1 April 2011;
The right to request time off for training was not extended as planned and will remain on hold whilst the potential impact is considered; and
There has been implementation of further elements of the Equality Act 2010. As of 6 April 2011 employers will be able to take positive action to address under representation in the workforce during recruitment processes when considering the appointment of two or more candidates of equal merit.

And the bad news…

From 6 April 2011 HMRC changed the rules in relation to the tax on termination payments made after issue of the employee’s P45. Previously these payments were made at the basic rate of tax with employees declaring this payment and paying additional tax at the end of the tax year. The new provisions remove this ability and instead will need to be processed under a new zero-allowance tax code meaning that employees will be taxed at their normal rate.
Despite a fall in overall claims to the employment tribunal according to the Tribunals Service quarterly statistics for the period 1st October 2010 to 31st December 2010 compared to the same quarter the previous year, the number of claims relating to age discrimination have increased almost threefold with pregnancy and sex discrimination claims also rising by 47% and 27% respectively.
A report by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) has found that UK employees on average take 10 unscheduled days off work per year compared to 5.5 for our counterparts in the USA. Sick days account for 80% of unscheduled absences with most being for minor illnesses. PWC estimate that the cost on business is £32bn a year based on the average UK salary. Earlier in the year the Government commissioned the Director General of the British Chamber of Commerce to conduct a review and to propose ways of lowering the sickness absence cost in both public and private sectors. Our advice is to ensure that your policies in relation to absence management are up to date and that managers effectively apply such a policy to encourage a culture change within the work force.

And finally Smith Partnership Employment Department news

April 2011 saw the launch of our new online hr support service called hrbank. Using the team's substantial employment law experience acting for employers of varying size from a wide range of sectors we have created a substantial online resource to assist clients in keeping up to date with ever changing employment laws whilst ensuring that their HR documents and templates are the most recent and legally relevant. The service allows users access to a database of almost 300 HR template documents (including contracts, policies, handbook and letters) and HR guidance notes.