New right to a written statement of terms from day 1
Current law
Currently, employees who have been continuously employed for more than one month must be provided with a written statement of terms within two months of employment commencing.
New law
All new employees and workers will have the right to a statement of written particulars from their first day of employment.
I have always advised however that an employee be required to sign a contract (which is effectively a more detailed Statement of Particulars with extra things added to protect the employer) as a condition of acceptance of an offer of employment anyway so that practice should be continued and then you will have a signed contract before day 1.
The new information which the law requires to be included within a Statement from April is:
- how long a job is expected to last, or the end date of a fixed-term contract
- how much notice the employer and worker are required to give to terminate the agreement
- details of eligibility for sick leave and pay
- details of other types of paid leave e.g. maternity leave and paternity leave
- the duration and conditions of any probationary period
- all remuneration (not just pay) e.g. vouchers, lunch, health insurance
- the normal working hours, the days of the week the worker is required to work, and whether or not such hours or days may be variable, and if they may be how they vary or how that variation is to be determined
- any training entitlement provided by the employer, any part of that training entitlement which the employer requires the worker to complete, and any other training which the employer requires the worker to complete and which the employer will not bear the cost.
I will be reviewing and updating the contracts of employment for all my retainer clients in March. If you are not a retainer client and would like me to review and update your employment contracts, please could you email a copy of the latest contract/s you are using to kcoleman@excellolaw.co.uk and I will provide a quote for doing so.
Holiday pay reference period adjustment
Current law
The calculation of holiday pay can be complicated, particularly for those with variable hours and variable rates of remuneration. Currently, the reference period for calculating the average pay to be paid when an employee with variable hours takes holiday is 12 weeks.
New law
The holiday pay reference period will increase from 12 weeks to 52 weeks. Employers will be required to look back at the previous 52 weeks where a worker has worked and received pay, discarding any weeks not worked or where no pay was received, to calculate the average weekly pay.
Whilst the new legislation does not specifically apply to those employees who have standard hours, you will be aware from previous bulletins that such employees who regularly work overtime and/or earn commission or bonus, should also have an additional average amount to reflect this included within their holiday pay.
Whilst the reference period for calculating this average has not yet been set in stone, I have often recommended basing it on the same 12 week average as used for employees with variable hours. I will now be advising in most cases that it would be safer for employers to use a 52 week average.
If your business does regularly pay overtime and/or commission/bonus and you are not including an element for this in holiday pay, then please do contact me for further advice.
Parents who suffer the devastating loss of a child will be entitled to 2 weeks’ statutory leave under new rules to be known as Jack’s Law. The legislation will see those who suffer the loss of a child receive paid time off for bereavement – something that is not currently an automatic right.
Of course, most employers will want to be as sympathetic as possible to their staff in such tragic circumstances and will already be doing all they can to support parents who lose a child. However, nothing has previously been laid down in Employment Law and the new laws are a welcome clarification for both parents and their employers.
Jack’s Law is named in memory of Jack Herd, whose mother, Lucy, has been campaigning for a reformation of bereavement laws ever since her son drowned aged 23 months, in 2010. Lucy Herd started campaigning for change after discovering that there was a lack of consistency in how compassionate leave was considered.
Until now, the official position, according to the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS), was that anyone classed as an employee has the right to time off for a ‘dependant,’ and that “this time off is for dealing with unexpected issues and emergencies involving the dependant, including leave to arrange or attend a funeral.”
This could be problematic as it doesn’t give a guideline on time allowed, only saying it should be ‘reasonable’ and there’s no stipulation that the leave should be paid leave.
ACAS states that many employers do choose to offer pay when someone’s been bereaved, but the amount they offer is up to them.
Parents who lose a child under the age of 18 will now be able to take bereavement leave as either a single block of two weeks, or as two separate blocks of one week each across the first year after the death, under the new law.
Parental Bereavement Leave – New law
Until now, the official position, according to the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS), was that anyone classed as an employee has the right to time off for a ‘dependant,’ and that “this time off is for dealing with unexpected issues and emergencies involving the dependant, including leave to arrange or attend a funeral.”
This could be problematic as it doesn’t give a guideline on time allowed, only saying it should be ‘reasonable’ and there’s no stipulation that the leave should be paid leave.
ACAS states that many employers do choose to offer pay when someone’s been bereaved, but the amount they offer is up to them.
Parents who lose a child under the age of 18 will now be able to take bereavement leave as either a single block of two weeks, or as two separate blocks of one week each across the first year after the death, under the new law.
What does the new law mean?
Anyone who has been employed for at least 26 weeks will be entitled to the statutory rate for family leave, currently £148.68 rising to £151.20 from 5 April 2020.