After the significant changes which were made over the summer, those who require to deal with employment law legislation on a day-to-day basis will no doubt be hoping for a quieter time of things. However, in the past couple of weeks, some further measures have been announced.
On 1st October an increase to the National Minimum Wage took effect. The new rates are:
- £6.31 for workers 21 and over
- £5.03 18 - 20 yrs
- £3.72 for 16-17 yrs, who are above school leaving age but under 18
- £2.68 for apprentices under 19 or 19 or over who are in the first year of apprenticeship.
Also on the 1st of October, the 3rd party harassment law set out in section 40 of the Equality Act was revoked. This provision, which was little used in practice, would see an employer become liable for the harassment of an employee by a 3rd party (e.g. a customer or supplier), where that harassment occurred on at least 3 occasions and the employer had not taken such steps as were reasonable to prevent the harassment from taking place.Given the difficulties that this potential liability could create, the removal of this section is likely to be welcomed by employers.
Finally, the government have provided some confirmation on the date upon which a further change will be implemented. Section 16 of the Enterprise & Regulatory Reform Act allows employment tribunals to impose “fiscal fines” where employers have been found to have infringed an employee’s rights and where there are “aggravating features. Any fine would be payable to the Secretary of State; not the Claimant.The Minister for Employment Relations, Jo Swinson, “tweeted” on Tuesday that this section will come into force in April 2014.
This is unlikely to be an end to the government’s ongoing review and proposals, with April next year already looking as though it will be another period of upheaval. We will of course continue to keep you updated.
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