From 7 April, the prescribed weekly rate of Statutory Maternity Pay, Statutory Paternity Pay and Statutory Adoption Pay will be £136.78 (up from £135.45). The rate of maternity allowance will also increase in the same way on 8 April.
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From 6 April, the weekly rate of Statutory Sick Pay will be £86.70 (up from £85.85).
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The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has confirmed that obesity itself is not a disability under the Equality Act.  Nevertheless, the EAT commented that if a claimant is obese, it is possible that a tribunal will more readily conclude that they suffer from qualifying impairments.  The employee in question  in this case had numerous physical and mental conditions (including asthma, chronic fatigue syndrome, knee problems, bowel problems, anxiety and depression), which caused him difficulty in his day-to-day life.  In this case, the claimant’s list of conditions was extensive and evidently he was disabled under discrimination law.  Walker v SITA Information Networking
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The government has published a timetable for future employment law changes. The key measures and expected implementation dates are set out below. Spring 2013 Collective redundancy consultation. The 90 day consultation requirement for redundancies involving 100 or more employees is to be reduced to 45 days in April 2013. Consolidation of national minimum wage (NMW). The government will be simplifying the national minimum wages rules and intends to produce a single set of consolidated regulations by April 2013, merging the current 17 sets of regulations. Summer 2013 Compensatory award cap. The unfair dismissal compensatory award will be capped at the
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The draft Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 (Amendment) Order 2013 was published on 5 February 2013. The changes it will introduce are: Halving the current 90-day minimum period before the first redundancy can take effect (if there are 100 or more redundancies) to 45 days. There is no change to the 30-day minimum period for 20-99 redundancies. Excluding the expiry of fixed term contracts from the scope of collective redundancy consultation. (However, dismissals before the end of a fixed-term will still be covered.) The changes  are intended to come into effect on 6 April 2013.
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On 4 February 2013, the Children and Families Bill 2012-13 was introduced in the House of Commons.  If it becomes law it will introduce significant changes. The Bill will introduce a new system of shared parental leave. Under this system, an eligible mother will continue to receive 52 weeks’ maternity leave as a day one right. Following the completion of the two weeks of compulsory maternity leave, the mother can choose to end her leave early and share the remainder of her leave with her partner. There will also be new statutory payments for parents on shared parental leave with
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Following on from our January newsletter, the government has just announced that this will be set at 12 months of the employee’s salary or the statutory limit set out each year (currently £72,300), whichever is the lower.
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Following on from our January newsletter, the government has just announced that whilst it will be mandatory for the Claimant to contact ACAS before they lodge a claim, either party can choose not to conciliate through ACAS –conciliation itself will not be mandatory.
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The government has stated that it is planning to have in place the first phase of an online system to pay employment tribunal fees by July 2013. This suggests that fees (as set out in our previous newsletter) are likely to come into effect around this date.
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Amending the legislation so that some service provision changes may no longer fall within the scope of TUPE. The detail on this has not yet been published and as this is also governed by European law, it is likely that the government’s amendments may not have a significant impact on outsourcing arrangements, for instance. Removing the list of specific Employee Liability Information that the transferor must currently provide to the transferee. Instead the transferor would have to disclose information to the transferee where necessary for the transferee and transferor to perform their duties re information and consultation. There are likely
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