5 Employment Law Changes coming up in 2014

2013 saw a number of significant changes in employment law. We saw the introduction of tribunal fees for the first time in the UK, reduced consultation periods for collective redundancies and changes in criminal record checks, including the introduction of the Disclosure Barring Service (DBS) check.

1) Changes to TUPE will come into force

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has now confirmed that the changes to TUPE will take effect as from 31^st January 2014. The changes aim to help employers and staff in a business that is changing ownership, go through a process that is easy, effective and fair. TUPE can be a complex area, so if your business is planning to buy or sell aspects of the operation that will involve employees transferring their employment, you can seek advice from the Tamar HR team at an early stage so that we can assist you through the process.

2) Early Conciliation to be introduced

You may already be aware that employment tribunal fees were introduced in 2013. The next stage to these reforms is the introduction of early conciliation from ACAS. This will mean that any individual wishing to make a claim to the employment tribunal will need to notify ACAS before they do so. At this point ACAS will offer conciliation to try and resolve the dispute between the employee and employer without the need for going to a full Tribunal hearing. The Government hope that this change along with the introduction of tribunal fees will ease some of the £80 million pound cost to run employment tribunal service each year.

3) The right to request flexible working will be extended to all employees

From Spring 2014, all employees will have the right to request flexible working. As an employer, you don’t have to accept every request that is made, but you do have a duty to consider requests and take a consistent approach when deciding if the request can be accommodated. Flexible working can have many benefits, with increased commitment from staff, increased productivity and may open up a role to a wider talent pool when recruiting. The impact on the business should also be fully considered before responding to the employee. 

4) Sick pay, maternity, paternity and adoption pay will increase

On 6^th April 2014 many statutory payments that employers make will have their rates increased. Please see the table below for the current rates and the new rates that will apply. We may also see a national minimum wage increase in October 2014, although the rate has not yet been confirmed.

	2013 Rate (current)	2014 Rate (from 6th April)
Statutory Sick Pay	£86.70	£87.55
Statutory Maternity Pay	£136.78	£138.18
Statutory Paternity Pay	£136.78	£138.18
Statutory Adoption Pay	£136.78	£138.18

 

5) Employers with over 60 staff will have to automatically enrol workers onto a pension scheme

You will be aware that Auto enrolment requires all employers to offer employees access to a workplace pension scheme.  The timing of this depends on number of employees and the size of the payroll.  All UK businesses will have to comply by 2018 and this year will focus on employers with staff between 50 and 500. We recommend that you act now even if you do not have to comply this year, as the process to get a scheme up and running and communicate this to your staff can take significant time. If you would like to know your staging date, contact us with your company PAYE payroll details and we will be able to assist you in your preparations.

If you would like to know more about any of the changes expected in 2014, please don’t hesitate to contact one of the team here at Tamar HR.