Dorset HR Forum - March Employment Law Update

Dec 13 2010

HR ForumMarch 2013

Employment Law Update

June 7 2010

What’s new for 2013?

What’s in the pipeline?

A few recent cases

June 7 2010

What’s new for 2013?

• Tribunal reform• Tribunal Award limits come into force• Employee-shareholder contracts introduced• Unpaid parental leave increases• DBS checks (formerly CRB) now portable• Collective consultation period reduced• Real-time information for payroll• Statutory mat, pat, adoption pay increases• SSP increases• Imposition of tribunal fees

June 7 2010

Tribunal ReformEnterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill, spearheaded by Business Secretary, Vince Cable implements:

• various reforms to the employment tribunal system;

• permits employers to have protected conversations with employees with a view to terminating employment via a Settlement Agreement;

• allows Secretary of State to change the limit on the unfair dismissal compensatory award

June 7 2010

Tribunal Award Limits

From 1 February 2013:

Unfair dismissal rises from £72,300 to £74,200 SRP weekly rate rises from £430 to £450 Guarantee payment rises from £23.50 to £24.50

June 7 2010

Employee-shareholder contracts are introduced

From April 2013, giving employees shares in exchange for waiving certain employment rights:

• Claim unfair dismissal, (except for reasons that are automatically unfair)

• SRP• Make statutory requests for flexible working• Make statutory requests in relation to study or training

Will have to give 16 weeks notice to return early from mat leave.

June 7 2010

Unpaid Parental Leave

The right to unpaid parental leave increases from 13 weeks to 18

weeks from 8 March 2013

June 7 2010

DBS Checks are portable

From March 2013, new updating service is being introduced so that once a DBS check has been completed the results are available online for employers to confirm that no new information has been added since check was originally conducted (fee payable)

This means that DBS checks are portable and that an employee will not have to have a new check every time they start a new job

June 7 2010

Real-time information for payrollFrom 5 April 2013, employers are required to use real-time information to report payroll deductions.

Must send money within 14 days after the end of every tax month or 17 days if done electronically.

June 7 2010

Collective Consultation period

90 day consultation period for 100+ redundancies reduces to 45 days from 6 April 2013.

• ACAS to issue non-statutory code of practice to address key principles of redundancy consultation

• Exclude fixed-term contracts that have reached their agreed term from the obligation to consult collectively.

June 7 2010

Statutory Mat, Pat and Adoption pay increases

Standard rates of statutory maternity, paternity and adoption

pay increases from April 2013 from £135.45 to £136.78 per week

June 7 2010

Rate of Statutory Sick Pay increases

The standard rate of SSP increases from April 2013 from £85.85 to £86.70 per week

June 7 2010

Imposition of Tribunal FeesFrom summer 2013, fees will apply for 2 levels of claim:

Level 1: issue fee is £160 and hearing fee is £230(eg. Unlawful deduction of wages, holiday pay & redundancy claims)Level 2: issue fee is £250 and hearing fee is £950(eg. Discrimination, equal pay & unfair dismissal claims)

Fees waived if party cannot afford to pay.

June 7 2010

What’s in the pipeline!

There are a number of other employment law developments that are in the pipeline, but for which no date has been set, or proposals that are expected to progress during 2013:

- Government consults on reservists- Consultation planned on proposals to amend TUPE- Detail on flexible working changes expected- Consultation due on code of practice covering use of settlement

agreements- National Minimum Wage may rise

June 7 2010

Consultation on ReservistsProposals include:

• Making reserves available for additional roles and increase training

• More open relationship with employers• Greater predictability of training & deployment with no more

than 1 x 6-month deployment every 5 years• Voluntary Employers Charter• Introduction of anti-discrimination legislation• Building mutual benefit for employers• Kitemark approach for employers that support reservists

June 7 2010

Proposals to amend TUPENovember 2011 consultation aimed to reduce unnecessary burden on businesses, whilst protecting fairness to employees. Now doing further consultation covering whether:

Service provision changes should be retained or repealed Employee liability should be provided earlier Liability should pass entirely to transferee or be held

jointly by transferee & transferor Change of location of workplace does not necessarily

lead to automatic unfair dismissal, ie constituting ETO reason

June 7 2010

Expected changeson Flexible WorkingIn 2014, Government will:

Extend right to request flexible working to all employees

Replace right to request procedure with duty on employers to deal with requests in ‘reasonable’ manner and timescale

Create a statutory code to give guidance on dealing with requests

Not create any exemption for micro business (<10 employees)

June 7 2010

Settlement AgreementsACAS will consult on content of statutory code of practice that will set out principles which will govern use of settlement agreements (formerly Compromise Agreements) in ‘protected conversations’. Principles will include:

Where offer is made, reason must be clear Where individual refuses settlement, employer

must go through fair process before any possible termination

Employer should not discriminate in any way Improper behaviour will not be protected

June 7 2010

National Minimum Wage

NMW may rise on 1 October 2013, subject to prevailing economic conditions and the Low Pay Commission’s recommendation to Government in February 2013 (no news as yet…)

June 7 2010

A couple of recent

cases…

June 7 2010

Halford v Seddon Property Services Ltd

Worker unfairly dismissed for allegedly smoking in company vehicle

The employment tribunal concluded that, while smoking in a company vehicle would have been a reasonable ground for dismissal, the employer's investigation was not fair and reasonable, because of confusion over the dates and the resources available to the company of this size. Mr Halford's unfair dismissal claim succeeded, with the remedy still to be determined. 

June 7 2010

Farnaud v Dr Hadwen Trust Ltd

Employee who raised his voice at a colleague was unfairly dismissed

The tribunal found that Dr Farnaud's dismissal was both "manifestly and procedurally unfair". The company failed to show that it had a reasonable belief that Dr Farnaud was guilty of gross misconduct and to carry out a reasonable investigation. 

• There was no evidence that Dr Farnaud engaged in abusive or threatening behaviour

• The witnesses to the incident were not interviewed by an independent party • Failure to consider all relevant documents of the disciplinary hearing prior to the

appeal hearing. 

However, tribunal found that Dr Farnaud had contributed to his dismissal to some extent and therefore reduced his compensatory award by 25% to £18,266.62. 

June 7 2010

Gimson v Display By Design Ltd

Fair dismissal of employee who punched colleague after Christmas party

The tribunal disagreed with Mr Gimson that the incident was not in the course of employment. It found that the employer had reasonably concluded that events that happened after the work Christmas party were sufficiently closely connected to work to have had an impact on the working situation. 

It was as a result of the work Christmas party that Mr Gimson and some of his colleagues were walking home together. This created the situation that resulted in the assault, which could have impacted on the working environment as the company is small and close contact is unavoidable. 

June 7 2010

Dec 13 2010

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