Key Changes in UK Employment Law

This month saw a number of major and minor changes to UK employment law. Many of these are beneficial to employees, with increases to redundancy packages, better unfair dismissal compensation, and the raising of the national minimum wage. Below is a full overview of all the changes.

  Itemised Payslips

All employees have the right to an itemised payslip, which shows the number of hours worked, or clearly itemised values for the hours they have worked, the different types of work they have completed, and the value of each type of work.

Employees also now have the right to call for enforcement of itemised payslips at an employment tribunal if required.

In practice, this means that a full time employee that works overtime should now have a clear indication of the amount of overtime hours worked, either as a complete number of break down per hour. This right is also now applicable to all kinds of workers at the company, whether temporary, part time, or freelance.

  Statutory Redundancy Payments and Unfair Dismissal Awards

The following changes to statutory redundancy pay and unfair dismissal awards will be effective from the 6th April. It’s also up to employers to make sure that these new amounts are clearly stated in any company HR literature, so employees are fully aware of what is available to them.

• The maximum penalty for breach of a worker’s employment rights is now £20,000 (up from a £5,000 maximum).
• The maximum amount for basic rewards for unfair dismissal and statutory redundancy pay will rise to £15,240 (up from £14,670).
• The maximum amount of weekly pay has increased to £525 (up from £508).
• The maximum amount of compensation for unfair dismissal has risen to £86,444 (up from £83,682).

  Access to Work Changes

The Access to Work scheme will be changed to allow people with disabilities, as well as those suffering from mental or physical health problems, to claim up to a maximum of £52,200 per year. This amount is to help cover the costs of any additional support that might be needed in the workplace.

  Enforced Gender Pay Gap Reporting

Any private organisations with over 250 employees will be required to report the details of gender pay gaps in their company again by the 4th April. Gender pay gap reporting is also required for public sector companies, although the report due date is the 30th March.

  Automatic Enrollment in Pension Contributions

The minimum auto-enrollment pension contribution rates will change slightly as of April, as follows:

• Employer pension contributions will increase from 2% to 3%.
• Employee pension contributions will increase from 3% to 5%.

  Sick Pay and Payments for Family Related Leave

Sick pay will increase to £94.25 per week, while other statutory pay for family related leave will change as follows:

• The weekly amount of statutory maternity pay, statutory adoption pay, statutory paternity pay, and statutory shared parental pay will rise to £148.68.
• The weekly amount of maternity allowance will also rise to £148.68.

Increase in National Minimum and Living Wages

The National Minimum Wage will see an increase for the following age groups:

• All workers over 25 are entitled to £8.21 minimum per hour, which is also the National Living Wage.
• All workers aged 21-24 are entitled to £7.70 minimum per hour.
• All workers aged 18-20 are entitled to £6.15 minimum per hour.
• All workers aged 16-17 are entitled to £4.35 minimum per hour.
• All apprentices are entitled to £3.90 minimum per hour.