Increases in statutory payment rates 

For the next three years statutory payments have been fixed at an annual increase of 1% meaning that from this month onwards statutory sick pay will rise to £86.70 per week. The beginning of the month saw maternity, paternity and adoption pay rise to £136.78 per week.

Collective redundancy consultation 

Collective redundancy (20 or more employees within 90 days) has more red tape than other redundancies. There was a reduction this month in the number of compulsory days that redundancies must be under consultation where 100 or more employees are involved. This was reduced from 90 days to 45 days. It has now been clarified that this does not include employees under a fixed term contract if it is soon to expire. There will be guidance provided under the new ACAS code for more details. http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=1461

Changes to dismissal for political reasons 

The current law only protects individuals dismissed for political opinions or affiliation if they have been with their current organisation for two years or more. The changes will alter this time barring system, although cases will still be judged under the usual unfairness tests and compensation levels are as before.

National minimum wage 

The end of this month should see a proposed streamlined set of rules making the national minimum wage clearer for employers. The current set of 17 sets of regulations has been criticised for over-complicating the process. It has not yet been decided when the changes will come into force.

Amendments to the Equality Act 2010

There have been two governmental amendments to the Equality Act 2010. The third party harassment provisions have been repealed removing the right of an employee to take action against their employer if harassed by a third party on three or more occasions and their employer takes no steps to rectify the situation whilst in full knowledge. The discrimination questionnaire procedure used to establish whether there is an actionable claim will no longer be used. This may seem like the removal of an inefficient system but employer may still be asked questions during tribunal constructed by employees.

Although this sounds like good news for employers, as such questionnaires take a long time to answer, employees will still be able to put questions to their employers and tribunals will still be able to take the responses into account.

Changes to parental leave 

Due to the implementation of the Parental Leave Directive in the UK the maximum number weeks a parent can take as unpaid leave per child rose form 13 weeks to 18 weeks.