News

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.

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.

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.

The Government announced that it has accepted the recommendations from the Low Pay Commission on the new rates for the national minimum wage (NMW). 

Therefore the following rates will be applicable from 1st October 2010:-

£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 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.

It is confirmed that further to the increase in October 2009 to £380 for statutory redundancy payments, there is to be no further increase at this moment in time. 

With effect from 4th April 2010 the rates of statutory maternity, paternity and adoption pay increases from £123.06 to £124.88 per week.

The standard rate of statutory sick pay has not been increased and therefore remains at £79.15 per week.

With effect from 6th April 2010 the weekly earnings threshold for the above payments increases from £95.00 to £97.00.

A most unusual scenario has been announced by the Government in that there is to be a decrease in the statutory rate of guarantee pay.

With effect from 1st February 2010 the amount is set to decrease from £21.50 per day to £21.20. 

Additionally the maximum compensation award at employment tribunal will also decrease with effect from February 2010. The previous amount was £66,200 however this is reduced to £65,300

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.   

Effective from 1st October 2009, the National Minimum Wage rates are as follows:- 

Ages 16 + 17  increases from £3.53 to £3.57 per hour

Ages 18 - 21 increases from £4.77 to £4.83 per hour

Age 22 + increases from £5.73 to £5.80 per hour

The most recent update on the test case known as Heydey, is that it has now been heard at the European Court of Justice.

Heydey is an arm of Age Concern and have been trying to establish that a mandatory retirement age contravenes EU law. If their claim was successful it would establish that employees have the automatic right to work beyond the age of 65.  At present the right is to "request" to work beyond the age of 65, but Heyday could change this, and therefore affecting millions of employees approaching 65 who may want to continue working.

However the ECJ has determined that having a compulsory retirement age is capable of being justified, and therefore does fall within the scope of the relevant Regulations and Directives. As a result of the ECJ judgment, the case will now return to the High Court and it is expected that a hearing will be later this year.  We will keep you notified of the outcome, and until then our advice is to keep the default retirement age at 65 and ensure that you follow the statutory procedures relating to this.

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.

With effect from 1st April 2009, the right to request flexible working was extended to those with parental responsibility for children aged 16 and under.

Previously this has been a right only applicable to those with parental responsibility for children aged 6 or under. 

Previous rules and procedures still apply in that this is a right to "request" and not an automatic right to be allowed a change to working patterns or hours.  An employer still has the opportunity to reject such a request however a statutory procedure must still be followed in order to deal with a formal flexible working reqeust.

Advice is available from Drury PSM on step by step guidance on how to deal with flexible working requests.