Seasons greetings from Integra
This is our final employment law update of 2012
Collective redundancy consultation
The Government has announced that the minimum consultation period for large-scale redundancies (where the employer proposes 100 or more redundancies at one establishment) will be cut from 90 to 45 days from April next year.
The press release (which can be found at http://news.bis.gov.uk/Press-Releases/Boost-for-business-as-government-sets-out-plans-to-update-employment-legislation-68512.aspx) states that the Government believes that this will give businesses the flexibility to respond to changing market conditions and to restructure more effectively whilst ensuring that employee uncertainty is not unnecessarily prolonged.
Increases to Tribunal awards from 1st February 2013
From 1st February 2013 maximum Employment Tribunal awards and other related amounts increase as follows:
- The maximum week’s pay for certain statutory purposes increases from £430 to £450
- The maximum compensatory award for unfair dismissal will increase from £72,300 to £74,200
- Guarantee pay, which an employee may be entitled to during periods of lay off, will increase from £23.50 to £24.20 per day
Government to introduce flexible parental leave and the right to request flexible working for all
Flexible parental leave
The Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, has announced that from 2015 the UK will have a new system of flexible parental leave. The Government’s Modern Workplaces response on flexible parental leave states:
- 52 weeks of maternity leave will remain the default position for all employed women
- Fathers will remain entitled to two weeks’ paid paternity leave
- Up to 50 weeks of untaken maternity leave can be taken as flexible parental leave, to be shared by the woman and her partner. If the mother states in advance that she will return from maternity leave early then the balance of the leave may be taken by the parents concurrently
- Flexible parental leave must be taken in minimum blocks of one week. Parents must agree their individual pattern of leave with their employer. If the proposed pattern cannot be agreed, the leave defaults to a single block to commence on a date specified by the employee
- A new right will be created allowing men to take unpaid leave to attend two ante-natal appointments
- Parents who adopt or have a child born through a surrogacy arrangement will be eligible for the new flexible parental leave on equal terms with biological parents
- Unpaid parental leave will increase in March 2013 from 13 to 18 weeks
- the age limit on parental leave will increase from 5 years to 18 years in 2015, giving each parent the right to up to 18 weeks’ unpaid parental leave for each child under 18
A consultation considering the detail of how the new system of flexible parental leave system will work will be launched early in the New Year
Right to request flexible working
The Government will extend the right to request flexible working to all employees from 2014.
Currently, any parent with a child under the age of 17, or under 18 if the child is disabled, can ask to work flexibly.
The Government response on extending the right to request flexible working to all employees confirmed that Acas will produce a statutory Code of Practice and supporting Guidance on the proposal. Consultation on the Code of Practice will take place in 2013 with implementation envisaged during 2014.
Government responds to employee ownership consultation
In October we posted an update on proposals for the introduction of a new type of employment contract, the “owner-employee” contract. This would allow employees to give up some employment rights, such as the right not to be unfairly dismissed, in return for shares in the employer.
The Government has since published its response to the consultation and intends to implement the proposal in the form of the Growth and Infrastructure Act. Changes to the proposal following consultation include:
- Changing the name of the new employment status to “employee shareholder”
- Allowing non UK-registered companies to benefit from the status
- Explicitly stating that the shares should be fully paid up and be issued free of charge to the employee owner
- Enabling the Secretary of State to increase the minimum share value of £2,000
- Removing the upper threshold of £50,000 on the number of shares that can be offered under the scheme, but not raising the £50,000 exemption from capital gains tax
- Changing the notice period for return from additional paternity leave to 16 weeks, so it is consistent with change to the notice period for return from maternity and adoption leave
- Allowing shares to be issued by both the employing company and its parent company
For more details see: http://www.bis.gov.uk/assets/biscore/employment-matters/docs/i/12-1338-implementing-employee-owner-status-government-response.pdf
To discuss any employment and HR law related issue get in touch at contact@integralegal.co.uk or give us a call on 0115 987 6790