Wednesday 23 January 2013

Key Changes in 2013

Below we look at some of the expected key events which will take place in employment law in 2013 and the dates of when these changes are expected to take place.
 
February

1st February 2013

Tribunal compensation limits will increase from £72,300 to £74,200.
Maximum Limit on a week’s pay will increase from £430 to £450.

February 2013

Annual adjustments to various employment awards (including a week's pay for the purposes of calculating statutory redundancy payments and the basic award for unfair dismissal) will be rounded up to the nearest £1.

March

8th March 2013

Implementation of the Revised Parental Leave Directive - The regulations will increase the amount of unpaid parental leave that can be taken per child from 13 to 18 weeks. Unpaid parental leave will continue to be limited to a maximum of four weeks per year.

March 2013

Repeal of the third party harassment and the discrimination questionnaire provisions in the Equality Act 2010.

April

6th April 2013

Collective redundancy consultation period involving 100 or more employees reduced from 90 to 45 days and employees whose fixed-term contracts are due to expire excluded from consultation requirements.

Statutory sick pay will increase from £85.85 to £86.70, with the weekly earnings threshold also rising from £107 to £109.

7th April 2013

The standard rates for statutory maternity pay, statutory paternity pay and statutory adoption pay will increase from £135.45 to £136.78. The weekly earnings threshold for these payments will rise from £107 to £109.

April 2013

A public interest requirement to whistleblowing disclosures will be introduced - an individual cannot bring "a whistleblowing case which relates to matters such as a personal contractual breach that are not in the public interest".

The Growth and Infrastructure Bill 2012-13 is planned to come into effect introducing the concept of employee shareholder status.

The Children and Families Bill will be introduced setting out a new system of flexible parental leave and flexible working.


Summer 2013

Fees will be introduced into the employment tribunal.


Expected 2013

The following provisions in the The Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill 2012-13 are due to come into force :

Mandatory pre-claim Acas conciliation.
Enhanced shareholder rights regarding directors' remuneration.
Reform the EHRC.
Changes to employment tribunal procedure and the orders a tribunal can make.
EAT judges to sit alone.
Pre-termination negotiations will be inadmissible in unfair dismissal proceedings.


Employment Law Reform Announcements

On 17 January 2013, the government made a number of announcements on its ongoing employment law reform programme. The key developments are:

The unfair dismissal compensatory award will be capped at the lower of one year's pay and the existing limit.
Acas will shortly publish a draft statutory code of practice on how settlement agreements will operate once the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill has been enacted.
A consultation on extensive changes to TUPE 2006, including the removal of the service provision change provisions.
Proposals to simplify the regulation of the recruitment sector by repealing the Employment Agencies Act 1973 and the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations and replacing them with a new regulatory framework.
Tackling long-term sickness absence by implementing most of the recommendations contained in the 2011 report, Health at work: an independent review of sickness absence.
 
To find out more information about any of these changes, visit our website or contact us.

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