Diary Dates: Employment Law

Are you prepared for the forthcoming employment legislations outlined below? We’ve gathered some key dates for you as a reminder, along with a key overview of what the changes involve.

March

• 30 March 2018 – Gender Pay Gap Reporting -first reports – Public sector
  ‘Specified public authorities’, including government departments, the armed forces, local authorities, the NHS and state schools, with 250 or more employees, must make their first gender pay gap reports on this date, based on data gathered on 31 March 2017.The same ‘data snapshot’ and reporting dates will apply from now on under the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties and Public Authorities) Regulations 2017, which are largely the same as those that apply to private and voluntary sector organisations of the same size (see below).
• 31 March 2018 – Fit for Work assessment ends
  The government announced the scrapping of the ‘Fit for work’ assessment scheme in December 2017.Launched three years previously, the scheme consisted of a free information service – providing advice on health, work, and managing sickness absence – and a free occupational health assessment service for employees who had reached, or were likely to reach, four weeks of sickness absence.Employers, employees and GPs will still be able to use the ‘Fit for work’ helpline, website and web chat service, but the assessment service will close in England and Wales on 31 March 2018, and in Scotland on 31 May 2018.

  The closure, announced alongside a 10-year strategy paper for getting more disabled people into work called Improving lives: the future of work, health and disability, is attributed to a low referral rate.

April

• 1 April 2018 – National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage
  The annual minimum wage increases will be effective. Check if you have staff who will be affected, and also remember to pre-empt any birthdays that may be coming up that will push staff into the next band.
• 4 April  – Gender Pay Gap Reporting -first reports – (Private & Voluntary sector)
  Gender pay reports must all be available to the public to view. Organisations who have 250 or more staff must have published their gap on their own websites and submitted them to the government’s web page too.
• 6th April – Auto Enrolment
  Auto-enrolment minimum contributions will be increasing to a total of 5% (2% to be made by the employer and 3% to be made by the member of staff).
• April – Family-friendly payments and SSP
• Taxation of PILONS and termination payments
• Restricting employment allowance for illegal workers

May

• 25 May 2018 – General Data Protection Regulation
  The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will become mandatory. The Regulation will apply to the UK post-Brexit, as the GDPR has been incorporated into the Data Protection Bill. It seeks to force organisations to take accountability for the data privacy and security, to unify rights across member states, and to modernise the law to reflect the digital age and modern use of personal data.

TBC

• Date to be confirmed – CEO/Worker pay gap reporting
• TBC – Parental Bereavement Bill
• TBC – Grandparental Leave
• IR35 in the private sectorSource: CIPDSources:
  HR Solutions
  CIPD

Tags: employment legislation, Hr dates, legislation

Written by Laura Miller