http://www.drurypsm.com Drury PSM Latest News RSS Feed Tue, 18 Jan 2011 07:00:02 +0000 en-us http://www.drurypsm.com/news/#1 http://www.drurypsm.com/news/#1 Fri, 01 Oct 2010 12:00:00 +0100 It has recently been confirmed by the government that the default retirement age (DRA) of 65 is being removed. Therefore with effect from 1st October 2011 employers will no longer be able to impose retirement on workers.This means that older members of staff will only be able to be dismissed lawfully on the same grounds that you would apply for any other employee.Transitional arrangements have been put into place to allow for the DRA to be repealed as of 1st October 2011. These are that an employer must issue written notification of retirement prior to the 6th April 2010; that the retirement date falls before 1st October 2011 and that the full statutory retirement procedure is followed.Any retirement which falls on or after 1st October 2011 will be unlawful. http://www.drurypsm.com/news/#2 http://www.drurypsm.com/news/#2 Fri, 01 Oct 2010 12:00:00 +0100 The Equality Act came into force with effect from 1st October 2010.This is a huge piece of legislation as it incorporates all previous single acts of legislation for protected groups. These groups are now known as protected characteristics and include the following; age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, marriage & civil partnerships and pregnancy & maternity.The Act does not make any major changes to what has previously been in place to protect employees from discrimination; however it does broaden the scope in some of these characteristics to include discrimination by association. This means that an employee could be discriminated against by their association with a person from a protected characteristic. For example an employee with a disabled dependant or an employee who's partner is from an ethnic minority.It is therefore imperative that employers have an equal opportunities policy in place and ensure that this is managed effectively in the workplace.Arguably the most significant change introduced by this legislation is that surrounding pre-employment health issues. Please refer to the separate section on this matter for further information. http://www.drurypsm.com/news/#3 http://www.drurypsm.com/news/#3 Fri, 01 Oct 2010 12:00:00 +0100 With effect from 1st October 2010 the National Minimum Wage rates increased to:£5.93 per hour for workers aged 21 and over. (Note that the current adult rate applies to workers aged 22 and over but from October will be extended to include 21 year olds).£4.92 per hour for 18 to 20 year olds.£3.64 per hour for 16 and 17 year olds.Finally the Government has announced that also effective from October 2010 an apprentice minimum wage of £2.50 per hour will be introduced for those currently exempt from the NMW. The new rate will apply to those apprentices who are under 19, or those aged 19 and over but in the first year of their apprenticeship. All other apprentices already receive the NMW depending on their age. http://www.drurypsm.com/news/#4 http://www.drurypsm.com/news/#4 Fri, 01 Oct 2010 12:00:00 +0100 The Equality Act came into force with effect from October 2010 and covers numerous areas of protected characteristic groups in order to eradicate discrimination and harassment of any form.Included in the Act is protection from disability discrimination, which previously fell under the remit of the Disability Discrimination Act. However the provisions of disability under the Equality Act have been enhanced.The Equality Act states that it is unlawful to ask health related questions before you have offered a job to an applicant. Once employment has been offered health questions can then be asked, provided that the questions are appropriate to the role being offered.This part of the Act has a huge impact on employers and it is strongly advised that the issuing of generic health questionnaires with application forms is a practice which must cease immediately, along with pre-employment medical examinations.The wording of the Act does infer that questions can be asked prior to employment being offered provided that it is purely for the purpose of establishing if the applicant can comply with a specific function that is intrinsic to the work concerned, or to establish if there would be a reasonable adjustment required to allow the applicant to carry out the role. This is an extremely contentious section of the legislation and could be open to interpretation and therefore of course open to claims of disability if the applicant disagrees with the purpose of asking any such questions. Clarity and guidance will become more apparent through case law when such issues are challenged. http://www.drurypsm.com/news/#5 http://www.drurypsm.com/news/#5 Fri, 02 Apr 2010 12:00:00 +0100 Additional Paternity Leave Regulations came into statute in April 2010, however the new rights will only be applicable to the parents of babies born on or after 3rd April 2011.Preparations to implement the new regulations would need to be made during 2010, hence the reason for the effective date of statute being this year.The regulations allow for the employee taking the paternity leave to take a maximum of 26 weeks additional paternity leave, provided that the mother has returned to her work without exhausting her full maternity leave allowance.Additionally some of the leave may be paid to the person taking paternity leave if the mother had been entitled to statutory maternity pay and not exhausted it.Simply, this means that in effect the regulations allow for the mother to transfer her untaken maternity entitlement to the child's father or the person who has parental responsibility for the child. http://www.drurypsm.com/news/#6 http://www.drurypsm.com/news/#6 Thu, 01 Apr 2010 12:00:00 +0100 The current statutory limit on redundancy pay is £380.00 per weekEffective from 4th April 2010 the rate of statutory maternity, paternity and adoption pay is £124.88 per week.The standard rate of statutory sick pay is £79.15 per week. Effective from 6th April 2010 the weekly earnings threshold for the above payments is £97.00 per week.Effective from 1st February 2010 the statutory amount for guarantee pay day is £21.20 per day. Finally the maximum compensation award at employment tribunal is £65,300 http://www.drurypsm.com/news/#7 http://www.drurypsm.com/news/#7 Thu, 01 Apr 2010 12:00:00 +0100 From April 2010 the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has new powers to fine organisations up to £500,000 for serious breaches of the Data Protection Act. Such a fine can be imposed where the breach was deliberate or where the organisation failed to take reasonable steps to prevent the breach where such a risk existed.Along with the increase in financial penalities, custodial sentences may also be imposed on relevant personnel who have been found to have sold personal information.The ICO has stated that it would take a "pragmatic and proportionate" approach to issuing financial penalites and would take into account a number of factors including the size and administrative resources of the organisation before imposing a civil penalty to ensure that "undue financial hardship" is not imposed on an organisation. http://www.drurypsm.com/news/#8 http://www.drurypsm.com/news/#8 Mon, 01 Mar 2010 12:00:00 +0000 From April 2010 employees of organisations with 250 or more employees have the right to make a request to take time off work to undertake training - notably, the right does not include the right to be paid for any such time off.It is also worth noting that the right is to make a request to take time off for training, there is no automatic right to have the time off work. Employers will however only be able to refuse an employee's request where it has sound business reasons for the refusal.Employers will see that this mirrors the current arrangements for making/refusing a flexible working request from an employee. Similarly the employee must meet certain eligibility requirements to be able to make the request, including having 26 weeks continuous employment.This right will become effective for smaller employers from April 2011. http://www.drurypsm.com/news/#9 http://www.drurypsm.com/news/#9 Mon, 25 Jan 2010 12:00:00 +0000 With effect from April 2010 the traditional GP sick note has been replaced with a new "fit note" system of sickness certification.The government intends to change the format and content of the previous GP sick note so that the GP is able to provide more detailed information, which ultimately may help the employee to return to work sooner. http://www.drurypsm.com/news/#10 http://www.drurypsm.com/news/#10 Wed, 01 Apr 2009 12:00:00 +0100 With effect from 1st April 2009, the statutory minimum holiday entitlement increased to 5.6 weeks. For an employee working 5 days per week this is a total of 28 days per year, this will include customary public holidays.Therefore employers who currently give 20 days holiday plus the normal 8 bank holidays are compliant with the minimum entitlement awarded to employees. Employers should review their contracts and Employee Handbooks to ensure they are legally compliant, or if they need to be updated. http://www.drurypsm.com/news/#11 http://www.drurypsm.com/news/#11 Wed, 02 Dec 2009 12:00:00 +0000 It has been announced that with effect from 1st February 2011 there will be an increase to the statutory payments detailed below:Guarantee Pay will increase from £21.20 to £22.20The maximum amount of a week's pay for the purpose of calculating a redundancy payment will increase from £380 to £400.Finally the limit for a compensatory award for unfair dismissal will increase from £65,300 to £68,400