The Government has confirmed that the publication of the final Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2016 has been delayed. It was originally expected that the final Regulations would be published this summer and come into force on 1 October 2016. However, the Government now envisages that the Regulations will commence in April 2017. If this is the case, it is likely that the first “relevant date” under the Regulations would remain at 30 April 2017 as previously announced, meaning that the first gender pay gap reports will be due by the end of April 2018.
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The key recent changes are summarised below. National Minimum Wage A new category of minimum wage rate was introduced on 1 April 2016. This new rate, called the “National Living Wage” applies for workers aged 25 and over. Confusingly, this is a similar name to the unrelated campaign by the Living Wage Foundation for a Living Wage, which is a voluntary minimum rate calculated on the basic cost of living. The new figures for the National Minimum Wage are set out below: From 1 April 2016 to 30 September 2016: National Living Wage (Age 25+):  £7.20 (new rate) Standard Adult
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The annual increase in certain Employment Tribunal compensation limits comes into force on 6 April 2016. The maximum compensatory award for unfair dismissal will rise from £78,335 to £78,962. The maximum amount of a week’s pay, used to calculate statutory redundancy payments and various awards including the basic and additional awards for unfair dismissal, also rises from £475 to £479.
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The National Minimum Wage (Amendment) Regulations 2016 come into force on 1 April 2016. The new National Living Wage will apply to workers aged 25 and over at a rate of £7.20 an hour.
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The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has decided that childcare vouchers provided under a salary sacrifice scheme are part of the employee’s “remuneration” and therefore do not have to be provided during maternity leave. However, where the vouchers are provided on top of salary, without a salary sacrifice, they are not part of the employee’s remuneration and must therefore be continued. The EAT expressed its conclusion somewhat tentatively, acknowledging that the issue was not clear-cut and further litigation is possible on this issue.
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The Government has published draft Regulations introducing gender pay gap reporting. Under the new regime, private and third sector employers with at least 250 employees will be required to publish an annual report showing the overall gender pay gap in their organisation, calculated using both mean and median hourly pay over a specific pay period (normally a week or a month, depending on the employer’s usual pay cycle). The report will need to include information on the gender balance in each of four salary quartiles, based on the employer’s overall pay range. This will show how the gender pay gap
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The European Court of Human Rights (“ECtHR”) has handed down a decision on the right to employee privacy when an employer monitors private messages sent by an employee through a work-related Yahoo messaging account. The employee had been dismissed for personal internet use at work, contrary to the employer’s internal rules. As part of its investigation the employer accessed private messages sent by the employee to friends and family relating to personal matters. These messages were printed by the employer and used in the disciplinary proceedings as well as in the subsequent court cases. The ECtHR held that the monitoring
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The Exclusivity Terms in Zero Hours Contracts (Redress) Regulations 2015 will come into force on 11 January 2016. These new Regulations provide a remedy for zero hours workers against employers who include exclusivity clauses in their contracts of employment. Exclusivity clauses in zero hours contracts are already unenforceable. The Regulations provide: A right for employees working under zero hours contracts not to be unfairly dismissed if the reason, or principal reason, is that the employee has failed to comply with an exclusivity clause. A right for workers working under zero hours contracts not to be subjected to any detriment by
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The Department for Work and Pensions has published proposed Statutory Maternity, Paternity, Adoption and Shared Parental Pay, Maternity Allowance and Statutory Sick Pay  for the year beginning 6 April 2016. Because of a 0.1% fall in the Consumer Price Index, there will be no increase to those payments for the 2016-17 tax year and so the figures will remain the same as the current tax year.
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The recent Bear Scotland case on holiday pay only dealt with overtime that an employee is obliged to do. The Northern Ireland Court of Appeal (whose decisions are taken into account in the rest of the UK) has now decided that there is no reason why voluntary overtime should not also be included in statutory holiday pay for the purposes of the Working Time Regulations. It will be a question of fact for each tribunal to determine whether or not overtime is “normally” carried out and whether overtime pay can properly be described as forming part of “normal remuneration” .
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