Some important employment law provisions were brought into force on 26 May 2015, namely: (i) a ban in zero hours contracts on exclusivity clauses (contract clauses that prevent employees from working for another employer),  and (ii) an increase in the maximum penalty for breach of the national minimum wage to £20,000 in respect of each underpaid worker.
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The European Court of Justice has delivered its judgment  in the ‘Woolworths’ case.   Employers must collectively consult where they propose to dismiss as redundant 20 or more employees at one establishment. If an employer fails to do this, each employee may be entitled to a tribunal award of up to 90 days’ gross pay. Woolworths went into administration and made redundancies without consulting the employees concerned. The issue which has been going through the Tribunal system and the courts has been what is an “establishment”.  Should Woolworths have aggregated all their stores when deciding if they were exceeding the 20
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Many changes came into force in April – we have summarised the key recent changes for you below, as well as including a reminder about the introduction of shared parental leave. Shared Parental Leave Shared parental leave is available in respect of children who were born or placed for adoption on or after 5 April 2015. Eligible employees are entitled to a maximum of 52 weeks’ leave and 39 weeks’ statutory pay upon the birth or adoption of a child, which can be shared between the parents. For further detail, see   http://www.scullytwiss.com/winter-2014-employment-law-update/ Parental Leave From 5 April 2015, those entitled
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The revised Code took effect from 11 March 2015. It confirms that employers must agree to a worker’s request to be accompanied to a disciplinary or grievance meeting by a fellow worker or a trade union representative or official. It explains that the statutory requirement for such a request to be “reasonable”, applies to the making of the request, not to the worker’s choice of companion.
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As of 5 April 2015, statutory maternity, adoption, paternity, additional paternity and shared parental pay will increase to £139.58 a week (up from £138.18). From 6 April 2015, the weekly rate of statutory sick pay will increase to £88.45 (up from £87.55).
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Our November newsletter (http://www.scullytwiss.com/employment-appeal-tribunal-makes-important-decision-on-holiday-pay-and-overtime/) set out the latest position on overtime payments and holiday pay following the well-publicised case of Bear Scotland Ltd v Fulton – in summary that where workers were regularly paid overtime (even if non-guaranteed), this should be included in calculations of holiday pay. One of the headline concerns raised by employers was how far back could workers bring claims for underpaid holiday. The most obvious claim that a worker who has been underpaid holiday could bring would be a claim for unlawful deductions from wages. Before Bear Scotland v Fulton, the generally understood position was that
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Important new Regulations (The Deduction from Wages (Limitation) Regulations 2014) have been made and will come into force on 8 January 2015. The Regulations, which are designed to limit the impact on businesses of the recent decision in Bear Scotland Ltd v Fulton impose a two-year limitation period on most unlawful deductions from wages claims, including claims for holiday pay. The new limitation period will apply to claims presented on or after 1 July 2015. The Regulations also provide that regulation 16 of the Working Time Regulations 1998 does not confer a contractual right to paid leave. This is intended to
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Introduction of Shared Parental Leave and Other Family Leave Changes In 2015 there will be significant changes to leave entitlements for new parents who have babies due (or to be placed for adoption) on or after 5 April 2015 – the new Shared Parental Leave will be available.  For babies who are due (or placed for adoption) on or after this date, additional paternity leave will no longer be available, and instead, provided they meet certain criteria, both the mother and the parents will be able to opt into the new Shared Parental Leave arrangements.  This provides considerable flexibility for
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Background As you are probably aware, there have been a number of cases over the years on the issue of what an employee should be paid when they take holiday.  Many of the issues stem from the differences between the EU directive on Working Time and the UK legislation. The EU directive guarantees a minimum of 4 weeks paid holiday for all workers. The UK legislation now provides for 5.6 weeks. Furthermore, how holiday pay should be calculated differs depending on whether you are a worker with “normal” working hours or variable working hours each week. Earlier this year, the
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From 1 October 2014, an employee or agency worker who has a “qualifying relationship” with a pregnant woman or her expected child will be entitled to take unpaid  time off during their working hours to accompany the woman to antenatal appointments. “Qualifying relationship” includes spouses, civil partners and unmarried partners of the pregnant woman as well as the father of the child and those who expect to get a parental order in a surrogacy arrangement.  The right to take time off is limited to no more than two occasions lasting no more than six and a half hours each.
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