It\u2019s been a very busy last few months with changes in Employment Law and it\u2019s not over yet. There is more to come.\u00a0 Here\u2019s a catch up on some of the recent key changes and what\u2019s ahead of us.<\/p>\n
SETTLEMENT AGREEMENTS AND PRE TERMINATION NEGOTIATIONS<\/strong> In addition, conversations between the employer and employee with a view to ending the employment relationship under a settlement agreement are not admissible as evidence in most unfair dismissal claims. However, discussions will not be protected if the reason for parting company is for an automatically unfair reason and\u2026..\u00a0 Claimants can rely on what was said during pre-termination negotiations as evidence in other types of claims they may want to bring e.g. a discrimination claim or a claim for breach of contract. Therefore it may be worth considering following the “without prejudice” principles for some pre-termination discussions.<\/p>\n ET FEES<\/strong> To lodge a claim in an employment tribunal, an individual will need to pay a fee, or apply for fee remission. The fee (or fee remission application) has to be sent at the same time as the claim is submitted. A fee will also be payable in respect of any appeal to the E AT.<\/p>\n There are two levels of claim fees depending on the complexity of the claim being pursued.<\/p>\n Type A claims which include unpaid wages, holiday pay and redundancy payment will cost \u00a3160 on submission of the ET1 and a further \u00a3230 for the hearing. Type B claims which include unfair dismissal, discrimination and equal pay will cost \u00a3250 for submission of the claim and a further \u00a3950 for the hearing.<\/p>\n CAP ON UDL COMP AWARD<\/strong> EMPLOYEE SHAREHOLDERS<\/strong> Interestingly, if an employee sells his or her shares then the employee shareholder employment status remains unchanged unless a change of contract is agreed.<\/p>\n NATIONAL MINIMUM WAGE<\/strong> THIRD PARTY HARASSMENT<\/strong> EARLY CONCILIATION TO COME INTO FORCE<\/strong> TUPE<\/strong> Following consultation, the Government has set out what changes it is now going to implement and what it has decided not to go ahead with.<\/p>\n Changes that WILL<\/strong>be made are:<\/p>\n The government is NOT <\/strong>going ahead with:<\/p>\n FINANCIAL PENALTIES ON EMPLOYERS<\/strong> SCHOOL LEAVING AGE<\/strong> FLEXIBLE WORKING<\/strong> FINALLY\u2026. SICKNESS ABSENCE AND HOLIDAY<\/strong> \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It\u2019s been a very busy last few months with changes in Employment Law and it\u2019s not over yet. There is more to come.\u00a0 Here\u2019s a catch up on some of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.360-hr.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.360-hr.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.360-hr.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.360-hr.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.360-hr.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=843"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.360-hr.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1069,"href":"https:\/\/www.360-hr.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843\/revisions\/1069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.360-hr.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.360-hr.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.360-hr.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nWith effect from 29th<\/sup> July 2013, Compromise Agreements have been re-named as Settlement Agreements.<\/p>\n
\nThis new tribunal regime is now up and running although this is being challenged as unlawful by Unison and a judicial review of the case is to be heard in the High Court on 22 and 23 October 2013. Until a decision has been reached, the new system remains.\u00a0 If the new system is held to be unlawful, any ET fees paid will be refunded.<\/p>\n
\nA limit has been placed on the compensatory award for unfair dismissal cases. The maximum award will be either \u00a374,200 or 52 weeks\u2019 pay, whichever is the lower.\u00a0 This came into force on 29 July 2013 and will only apply to dismissals after this date.<\/p>\n
\nThis has now come into force (1 September 2013). \u00a0We now have a new type of employment status whereby the employee waives his or her statutory rights to most unfair dismissal claims (not automatic UDL); a statutory redundancy payment; to request time off for training; to request flexible working and to give longer notice to return early from family related leave \u00a0in exchange for shares in the Company of not less than \u00a32000 which will be free of capital gains tax (capped at \u00a350k) at disposal.\u00a0 The employer must pay for the employee to take legal advice and provide a statement with details of the shares. A cooling off period of 7 days must also be given.<\/p>\n
\nThe increases below will take effect from 1 October 2013:<\/p>\n\n
\nThe third party harassment provision in the\u00a0Equality Act has been repealed from 1 October 2013. However, employees who have been subjected to harassment by a third party may still be able to bring a claim against their employer for constructive unfair dismissal if the employee resigns as a result of the employer failing to take steps to protect him or her. At worst, the employer could be liable for discrimination if the failure to act is because of the employee\u2019s own sex or race.<\/p>\n
\nFrom April 2014 before lodging a claim to the Tribunal all claimants will need to notify Acas of their proposed claim. In turn Acas will then offer conciliation to both parties. If conciliation is unsuccessful or refused within the set period (one month \u2013 although this may be extended by up to two weeks if settlement is likely) the claimant can proceed with lodging a tribunal claim.<\/p>\n
\nThese changes are now likely to be implemented in January 2014 although this has not yet been confirmed.<\/p>\n\n
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\nThis is now due to come into force from 30 April 2014. If a tribunal concludes that an employer has breached any worker’s rights to which the claim relates and considers that the breach has any “aggravating factor”, then it may order the employer to pay a penalty to the Secretary of State of between \u00a3100 and \u00a35,000.\u00a0 Like a parking fine, the penalty is halved if paid within a specific time limit \u2013 in these situations – 21 days of the tribunal’s decision being sent to the employer. What will be classed as an aggravating factor is causing much debate and if there is more than one claim involved there\u2019s a whole set of complicated rules to deal with this \u2013 what joy!<\/p>\n
\nThis has been increased to 17 years and is due to rise to 18 years in 2015.<\/p>\n
\nThe Government proposes to extend\u00a0the right to request flexible working to all employees and remove the current statutory procedure for considering requests. Instead employers will have a duty to consider all requests in a reasonable manner and respond within a \u201cdecision period\u201d of three months (or longer if agreed). Employers will have the right to refuse requests on business grounds and the qualifying length of service to make requests will remain as well as restricting requests to one in any twelve month period. This is due in Spring 2014.<\/p>\n
\nThere has been a lot of to-ing and fro-ing over the last few years regarding long term sickness absence and the accrual of holiday. The up to date position is that although\u00a0 employees are entitled to accrue holiday whilst on long term sick and have it carried over into the next holiday year if untaken, it is only the four weeks\u2019 ordinary leave that automatically carries forward into the next holiday year and not the additional 1.6 weeks \u2013 unless there is an agreement in place to say otherwise.<\/p>\n