In December last year, the government published details of its ‘Good Work Plan’, which is a dossier that set out specific proposals to reform public employment law after carrying out an extensive review of the modern employment practices across the country.
The aim of the proposal is to ‘ensure workers can access fair and decent work, that both employers and workers have the clarity they need to understand their employment relationships, and that the enforcement system is fair and fit for purpose.’ Most of the changes are not to be expected to be implemented until 2020, however, they can sometimes catch the public and businesses out and therefore we would advise that you act now to avoid being caught off guard. Here are some of the key changes proposed by the Good Work Plan: Contractual Changes
Currently employers have TWO months to provide a Statement of Terms and conditions to employees, but from April 2020 this will be a ‘day one’ right;
Employers will also have an obligation not only to provide a Statement of Terms and Conditions to employees, but also to workers – something which they have not had to do before; Additional details will have to be provided in the Statement of Terms and Conditions, such as details of any probationary period, benefit entitlement and details of any paid leave.
Business’ who engage Agency Workers will have to provide them with a ‘Key Facts Page’; a document which needs to include details such as the type of contract they are employed under, details of any fees that might be taken and the minimum rate of pay they will receive.
After 26 weeks of employment, an employee will have the right to request a more predictable and stable contract.
An employer will have THREE months to consider and respond to any such request; in the main this will benefit casual or zero-hour employees, who might seek to request a guaranteed number of hours per week or to have stability over the days of the week that they are asked to work. Operational Changes
As things stand, a gap of one week can break an employee’s continuity of service. For employers who regularly engage the same individuals on a sporadic or casual basis, this protects against the build-up of any significant length of service; under the Good Work Plan, this gap will be extended to four weeks.
New legislative guidance will require all tips and gratuities to be passed directly to an individual, rather than being given to the employer to be split out amongst staff (or to be kept by the employer as sometimes happens).
The reference period used to calculate holiday pay (i.e. for those who work variable hours) is currently 12 weeks, but this will be extended to 52 weeks.
Enforcement Changes
Employment Tribunals will be given the power to impose harsher penalties on employers who don’t abide by the rules;
The previous penalty for an ‘aggravated breach of employment law’ was a maximum of £5,000, but this has now been increased to £20,000; For repeat offenders, further sanctions will be introduced in cases where they lose a second Tribunal case ‘on similar grounds’ to a previous claim. Judges will be required to consider in all cases such as this whether a penalty should be imposed;
If an employer fails to pay compensation awarded by a Tribunal, they will in future the prospect of being publicly named and shamed. This is in addition to the presently available sanction of receiving a penalty notice to pay another fine of up to 50% of the originally unpaid award.
Contact us to understand how you can implement these changes in your company on 01245 261883 or email contactus@littlerock.co.uk |