Category: General

Hard on the heels of the current government’s efforts to bring in new family-friendly employment laws – which include the Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Act 2023, the Neonatal Care (Leave and Pay) Act 2023, the Protection from Redundancy (Pregnancy and Family Leave) Act 2023 and the Carers Leave Act 2023, along with the Miscarriage Leave Bill and the Fertility Treatment (Employment Rights) Bill – The Times reported on 13 September a very interesting perspective on possible Labour government employment policy.

Angela Rayner, speaking from the TUC conference in Liverpool on 12 September, gave a “cast iron” guarantee that a Labour government would bring forward legislation to improve workers’ rights within 100 days of winning the next election. The proposed legislation would include Day 1 basic rights, a ban on zero-hour contracts, and an end to fire and rehire.

In a nod to the Jeremy Corbyn-era Labour manifesto on employment legislation, she pledged to introduce a new form of collective bargaining that would allow trade unions to negotiate pay and conditions across entire sectors of the economy such as social care.

The proposed legislation would also repeal some existing union laws, including the requirement that more than 50% of a workforce needs to vote for strike action.

Continue reading “Perspective on Employment Law Under a Labour Government”

With public services seeking to catch up on waiting lists, it seemed timely to provide an update regarding the ongoing backlog of employment tribunal cases.

A statistical data set published on 13 February 2023 by the HM Courts & Tribunals Service reported that there are more than 50,000 live cases awaiting a hearing or decision. This figure is a 7% increase from the December 2021 figure of 47,041.

For context, it was reported in 2019 that the number of outstanding employment tribunal cases had reached 23,700, which, at the time, was the highest level recorded since the abolition of tribunal fees in 2017.

Continue reading “Avoid Getting Stuck in Employment Tribunal Backlog by Resolving Cases Early”

The Neonatal Care (Leave and Pay) Bill, Carer’s Leave Bill and Protection from Redundancy (Pregnancy and Family Leave) Bill received royal assent on 24 May 2023.

The Neonatal Care (Leave and Pay) Act

This act will create a day-one right to enable parents to take a period of up to 12 weeks’ paid neonatal care leave if their baby is required to spend time in neonatal care. This period of neonatal leave will be in addition to maternity, paternity or shared parental leave.

Neonatal care leave will be available to employees in the event their child aged no more than 28 days is admitted to hospital for a continuous stay of seven full days or more.

Neonatal care leave will be paid subject to the employee meeting the following conditions:

Continue reading “New UK Law Offers Expanded Leave and Job Protection for Parents and Carers”

On 10 May 2023, the Department for Business and Trade published the policy paper “Smarter Regulation to Grow the Economy.” In the government’s words, there are “significant quantities of out-of-date, unworkable and unnecessary EU laws still on our statute book.” This policy paper is the first in a series of upcoming regulatory reform announcements with the aim to “improve regulation across the board to reduce burdens, push down the cost of living and drive economic growth.”

The policy paper addresses three key measures that the government affirms will act as a catalyst to achieve this goal. The regulations set to be reformed are:

1. Reducing Working Time Regulations (WTR) reporting burdens;
2. Simplifying the employment regulations that apply when a business transfers to a new owner (TUPE); and
3. Reforming noncompete clauses to boose competition and innovation.

Continue reading “Deparment for Business and Trade Publishes ‘Smarter Regulation to Grow the Economy’ Policy Paper”

The Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill was announced by the government on 22 September 2022. If enacted, it would have required all retained EU law (REUL) to be expressly transferred into UK law by 31 December 2023, or any such legislation would cease to be law in the UK. This would have impacted a range of employment regulations, including the Working Time Regulations 1998, the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (TUPE) and Agency Worker Regulations.

Unsurprisingly, there was a large amount of opposition to the bill, not least because of the scope of legislation that would be impacted.

Continue reading “Government Announcement – Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill”

On 15 March 2023, the UK government delivered their Spring Budget for 2023. The government stated that the strategy behind the Spring Budget is to promote “long-term sustainable growth”, with a focus on four key priorities: employment, education, enterprise and everywhere.

The government website states that it will prioritise employment, “ensuring the economy has the labour supply needed to boost growth and improve living standards”, and that the “Spring Budget delivers an ambitious package to increase labour supply and ensure the UK continues to attract global talent.”

The government aims to increase labour supply among four key groups:

Continue reading “Spring Budget 2023: What Does it Mean for Employers?”

On 14 March 2023, the Social Security Benefits Up-rating Order 2023 made increases to the rate of payment for statutory sick pay (SSP) as well as statutory maternity, paternity, adoption, shared parental and parental bereavement pay.

The new rates are as follows:

•SSP: £99.35 to £109.40.

•Statutory maternity, paternity, adoption, shared parental and parental bereavement: £156.66 to £172.48.

The increased payment rate for SSP will come into force on 2 April 2023, and the new rates for statutory maternity, paternity, adoption, shared parental and parental bereavement will apply on 6 April 2023.

The full Social Security Benefits Up-rating Order 2023 can be viewed at legislation.uk.gov.