Updates in Employment Law

The beginning of the new tax year on 6^th April is one of two dates in the year when changes to employment law tend to be made. This is a brief summary of some changes which came into force this week:

Shared Parental Leave

As discussed in more detail in our blog last week, the shared parental leave scheme is now available to all parents due to have or adopt a child.

Adoption rights

A number of changes have been made to the rights of those adopting children as of the 5^th April 2015. These are:

• The requirement for employees to have 26 weeks service in order to be eligible to take adoption leave has been removed, making it a ‘day one’ right in line with maternity leave.
• Employees have the right to time off to attend adoption appointments if they have at least 12 weeks service. Single adopters are entitled to paid time off to attend up to 5 appointments. Where there are joint adopters, only one is entitled to pay, and the other is entitled to unpaid time off to attend two appointments. It should be noted that an employee who takes paid time off to attend adoption appointments may not then take paternity leave in respect of the same child. Couples adopting children will therefore have to consider if they will both attend appointments and which of them will elect to be paid.
• Statutory adoption pay has been brought in line with statutory maternity pay, so that it is paid at 90% of the employee’s gross weekly earnings for the first 6 weeks of leave.  
• Adoption rights are extended to couples adopting a child from outside the UK and to those fostering children in England as part of a Fostering for Adoption placement.
• Rights to adoption leave and pay are also extended to parents where their child is born to a surrogate. The fact that this involves a birth rather than a placement means there are slight differences in the provisions, such as those on notification and evidence.

Parental leave

Previously, unpaid parental leave for the purpose of caring for a child could be taken in respect of a child until their fifth birthday. This has been increased as of the 5^th April 2015 to the child’s eighteenth birthday.  

National Minimum Wage

The National Minimum Wage Regulations 2015 came into force on 6^th April 2015. These consolidate the original 1999 regulations and over 20 subsequent amending regulations. These are intended to simplify the legislation and make the rules clearer, but do not make substantive policy changes. The government has indicated that it intends to introduce guidance to provide further clarity on various issues which were highlighted during the legislative consultation.

Changes to statutory rates

The following statutory prescribed rates have also changed:

1. The statutory cap on a weeks’ pay (used for statutory redundancy payments, tribunal basic awards) rose from £464 to £475.
2. The prescribed rate for statutory maternity/paternity/adoption/shared parental pay is now £139.58 per week.
3. The rate of Statutory Sick Pay is now £88.45 per week.

Meaning of “establishment” for collective consultation

A further point of note, following from our previous blog on Collective Consultation on Redundancy (6^th March 2015) concerns the Woolworths case on the meaning of establishment. It has been confirmed that the European Court will give its judgement in that case on 30^th April 2015. It is hoped that this will finally provide some certainty on what is meant by establishment and the scope of employers’ duties when it comes to collective consultation where redundancies are considered over a number of sites. 

of the new tax year on 6^thApril is one of two dates in the year when changes to employment law tend to be made. This is a brief summary of some changes which came into force this week:

Shared Parental Leave

As discussed in more detail in our blog last week, the shared parental leave scheme is now available to all parents due to have or adopt a child.

Adoption rights

A number of changes have been made to the rights of those adopting children as of the 5^th April 2015. These are:

• The requirement for employees to have 26 weeks service in order to be eligible to take adoption leave has been removed, making it a ‘day one’ right in line with maternity leave.
• Employees have the right to time off to attend adoption appointments if they have at least 12 weeks service. Single adopters are entitled to paid time off to attend up to 5 appointments. Where there are joint adopters, only one is entitled to pay, and the other is entitled to unpaid time off to attend two appointments. It should be noted that an employee who takes paid time off to attend adoption appointments may not then take paternity leave in respect of the same child. Couples adopting children will therefore have to consider if they will both attend appointments and which of them will elect to be paid.
• Statutory adoption pay has been brought in line with statutory maternity pay, so that it is paid at 90% of the employee’s gross weekly earnings for the first 6 weeks of leave.  
• Adoption rights are extended to couples adopting a child from outside the UK and to those fostering children in England as part of a Fostering for Adoption placement.
• Rights to adoption leave and pay are also extended to parents where their child is born to a surrogate. The fact that this involves a birth rather than a placement means there are slight differences in the provisions, such as those on notification and evidence.

Parental leave

Previously, unpaid parental leave for the purpose of caring for a child could be taken in respect of a child until their fifth birthday. This has been increased as of the 5^th April 2015 to the child’s eighteenth birthday.  

National Minimum Wage

The National Minimum Wage Regulations 2015 came into force on 6^th April 2015. These consolidate the original 1999 regulations and over 20 subsequent amending regulations. These are intended to simplify the legislation and make the rules clearer, but do not make substantive policy changes. The government has indicated that it intends to introduce guidance to provide further clarity on various issues which were highlighted during the legislative consultation.

Changes to statutory rates

The following statutory prescribed rates have also changed:

1. The statutory cap on a weeks’ pay (used for statutory redundancy payments, tribunal basic awards) rose from £464 to £475.
2. The prescribed rate for statutory maternity/paternity/adoption/shared parental pay is now £139.58 per week.
3. The rate of Statutory Sick Pay is now £88.45 per week.

Meaning of “establishment” for collective consultation

A further point of note, following from our previous blog on Collective Consultation on Redundancy (6^th March 2015) concerns the Woolworths case on the meaning of establishment. It has been confirmed that the European Court will give its judgement in that case on 30^th April 2015. It is hoped that this will finally provide some certainty on what is meant by establishment and the scope of employers’ duties when it comes to collective consultation where redundancies are considered over a number of sites.