, ,

Embrace HR Update March 2020

Embrace HR Aylesbury legislation

As April draws closer, we are preparing for several changes that will come into effect during the 1st week of the month…

Employment Law Actions

Statement of Terms and Conditions of Employment

There are several changes taking place to the Statement of Terms and Conditions of Employment which is given to new employees or workers to form their contract with their employer. In addition to the existing criteria the statement will also need to contain information on the following:

  • Details regarding the days of the weeks the person will be working and whether or not these will be variable
  • Details of any paid leave in addition to annual leave and sick leave
  • Details of any other benefits not included elsewhere in the statement
  • Details of any probationary period and the conditions associated with it
  • Details of any training entitlement which will be provided by the employer
  • Details of any part of that entitlement which will be compulsory
  • Particulars of any other compulsory training which the employer will not pay for

In addition, employees will have the right to receive their Statement of Terms and Conditions on the first day of employment; previously this entitlement was within two months of their start date.

Lastly casual workers (also known by some as bank workers) will now be entitled to receive a Statement of Terms of Conditions.

Calculating Holiday Pay

At the moment the average holiday pay for atypical contracts (variable hours and variable pay), is based on a 12-week reference period which includes overtime and variable hours. This is going to be extended to a 52-week reference period which means the average holiday pay for a employees and workers will be based on the number of hours worked over a rolling year.

Break in Continuous Service

The amount of continuous employment an employee has accrued is important for working out their employee rights, for example the right to claim unfair dismissal after two years’ service. Previously if an employee left their employer and didn’t return until after one week, they would be deemed to have had a break in their continuous service. However, the qualifying period for a break in service is going to be extended from 1 week to 4 weeks. This means that if employees do not have a break of 4 weeks, their continuous service will count from the start of their previous contract. This will make it easier for temporary workers to have continuous employment and mean that they are more likely to qualify for various employee rights. This will particularly impact staff moving from bank (casual) to permanent positions or vice versa.

Parental Bereavement Leave

Parents and primary carers will be entitled to two weeks’ leave following the death of their child under the age of 18; or a still birth after 24 weeks of pregnancy. Employees with 26 weeks’ service or more will be entitled to two weeks statutory pay and other staff will be entitled to unpaid leave.

VE Day 2020

The early May bank holiday has been moved from Monday 4th May 2020 to Friday 8th May 2020 to celebrate the 75th Anniversary of VE Day.

Statutory Pay Rates

The National Minimum Wage (NMW) and National Living Wage (NLW) will increase from 1st April 2020:

National Minimum Wage

 

2019 2020
Employees over 25 years £8.21 £8.72
Employees aged 21-24 years £7.70 £8.20
Employees aged 18-20 years £6.15 £6.45
Employees aged under 18 years £4.35 £4.55
Apprentices £3.90 £4.15

Other Statutory Pay Increases:

  • Maternity, Adoption, Paternity, Shared Parental Leave pay is increasing to £151.20 on 5th April 2020.
  • Statutory Sick Pay is increasing to £95.85 on 6th April 2020.

Brexit

Embrace HR can offer specific advice to businesses in relation to how their employees will be affected by Brexit. Please contact us for more information.

Current Coronavirus news

Embrace HR can offer specific advice to businesses in relation to managing employees affected by Coronavirus. Please contact us for more information.

This link takes you to the ACAS website that sets out general advice to employers: https://www.acas.org.uk/coronavirus

Our Services

Embrace HR offers a range of services to help you manage and support the people working with you. We will not only ensure that you are legally compliant but also ensure that you have the best processes in place for the motivation and performance of the people working for you. Some of the services we provide are: recruitment, onboarding, disciplinary and grievance, family leave, performance management, engagement, management development. We work with BreatheHR to provide Cloud based HR Software.

If you would like to discuss these matters further and how it could help your business, please contact Cecily Lalloo at Embrace HR Limited.

T: 01296 761 288 or contact us here.

If you would like to receive our quarterly newsletter, please sign up here.

Based in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, Embrace HR Limited supports business owners who do not have their own HR department or those that do but need help from time to time. We also work across the Home Counties of Oxfordshire, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire, and also SMEs based in London.