Employment law update 2019 – 2020
Kelly Baldwin
Recruitment Agency and Travel Agency Owner - Enjoying the Best of Both Worlds ??
Here Aspire Cambridge summarise the latest employment law changes and legal updates.
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Recent and upcoming updates
January 2019: Executive Pay Ratio Reporting
From this date, regulations made under the Companies Act 2006 require UK listed companies with more than 250 UK employees to report annually on the pay gap between their chief executive and their average UK worker.
The first reports are due in 2020.
April 2019: Pay slip changes
There are two important changes to the Employment Rights Act 1996, affecting pay slip information, which will come into force on 6 April:
- Employers must include the total number of hours worked where the pay varies according to the hours worked, for example under variable hours or zero hour contracts.
- Payslips must be given to ‘workers’ and not just employee
April 2019 : Flexible working introduced in the armed force
From April regulations will amend the terms of service of enlisted personnel who are not commission officers to allow for two types of flexible working. Part-time working allows personnel to agree days on which they are not required to be available for active service. “Service on a restricted separation basis” enables restrictions to be placed on the number of days on which personnel can be required to perform duties away from a specified place. The two types of flexible working are known collectively as “flexible service.”
2019: The Government’s proposed legislation following the Taylor Review of Modern Working Practices.
The proposed new legislation will:
- close a loophole by repealing the Swedish derogation – which currently allows agency workers to be employed on cheaper rates than permanent counterparts
- extend the right to a day one written statement of rights to workers, going further to include detail on rights such as eligibility for sick leave and pay and details of other types of paid leave, such as maternity and paternity leave
- quadruple maximum employment tribunal fines for employers who are demonstrated to have shown malice, spite or gross oversight from ￡5,000 to ￡20,000
- extend the holiday pay reference period from 12 to 52 weeks, ensuring those in seasonal or atypical roles get the paid time off they are entitled to
- lower the threshold required for a request to set up Information and Consultation arrangements from 10% to 2%
- the government is also committing to legislate to improve the clarity of the employment status tests to reflect the reality of the modern working relationships.
2020: Parental Bereavement Leave and Pay
The Parental Bereavement Leave and Pay Act 2018 has now been passed by royal assent. It is expected to come into force in 2020 and will give all employed parents the right to 2 weeks’ leave if they lose a child under the age of 18, or suffer a stillbirth from 24 weeks of pregnancy. Parents will also be able to claim pay for this period, subject to meeting eligibility criteria.
Updates 2018
October 2018: Abolition of Child care Vouchers
The workplace childcare voucher system, and the directly contracted childcare scheme (childcare provided by the employer), closed to new entrants from 4 October 2018. The schemes’ closure, due on 5 April 2018, was delayed by six months, following a vote in Parliament.
May 2018: General Data Protection Regulation
The General Data Protection Regulations strengthen and unify data protection for all individuals within the European Union. The primary objectives of the GDPR give citizens and residents back control of their personal data and to simplify the regulatory environment for international business. The UK government has confirmed that although it will be leaving the EU they will commit to the regulations.