6 April is the point in the year when the Government brings into force most employment law changes. 2014 is no different and I have summarised some of the key changes coming into force below:
Mandatory pre-claim conciliation
As I explained in my last blog the provisions relating to the requirement for Claimants to engage in early conciliation before issuing their claim in the Employment Tribunal come into force. For claims issued between 6 April and 5 May, early conciliation will be voluntary but for relevant claims issued on or after 6 May, it will be mandatory. This is quite a big change in the work of employment law as it has never before been mandatory for parties to consider conciliation. This change is part of the Government’s strategy to increase the efficiency of the Tribunal service but it remains to be seen whether it will have the desired effect.
Financial penalties for losing employers
In all cases presented to the Tribunal on or after 6 April , the Tribunal will have the power to order a losing employer to pay a financial penalty of up to £5,000 to the Secretary of State. See my previous blog on this for more details.
Abolition of the Percentage Threshold Scheme
We tweeted (@TE_Employment) about this some time ago. The Percentage Threshold Scheme enables some employers to reclaim Statutory Sick Pay from HMRC. This scheme will be abolished from 6 April as part of the Government’s agenda to review health at work and is no doubt an unwelcome change for small employers.
Statutory payments and limits increase
As I explained in my blogs in February (which can be seen by clicking here and here), 6 April marks the annual increase in the rate for Statutory Sick Pay, Maternity Pay, Paternity Pay, Adoption Pay, a weeks’ pay (for redundancy purposes) and the maximum unfair dismissal compensation award.
Increased penalty for employing illegal workers
The maximum civil penalty for employing an adult who is subject to immigration control but who does not have the right to work in the UK will increase from £10,000 to £20,000. This is a timely reminder of the need to ensure that you satisfy yourself of an individual’s eligibility to work in the UK before they commence work.
Abolition of discrimination questionnaires
The statutory discrimination questionnaire process will be abolished and replaced by a voluntary process of questions and answers in accordance with new ACAS Guidance. Although technically a Tribunal will not be able to draw an adverse inference against the employer purely for refusing to respond to a discrimination questionnaire, it does not prevent a Tribunal drawing inferences of discrimination more generally and therefore employers should think twice about refusing to answer reasonable questions regarding discrimination or equal pay.
Further changes are expected throughout the year (including the annual increase in statutory minimum wage in October). We shall of course blog about such changes as and when they arise.
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