News

April 2009

Summary of employment law changes

Holidays: from 1 April 2009, the final staged increase in statutory holiday entitlement of 5.6 weeks (being 28 days for someone working a five or more days a week) comes into force. The transitional provisions allowing "buy out" of the statutory days above 4.0 weeks also comes to an end.

Statutory Maternity Pay: from 6 April 2009, the standard rates of statutory maternity, paternity and adoption pay increase to £123.06 per week.

Statutory Sick Pay: from 6 April 2009, the standard rate of statutory sick pay increases to £79.15 per week.

Flexible Working Rights: from 6 April 2009, the right to request flexible working is extended to parents of children under the age of 17 (or under 18 if the child is disabled). Prior to this, only parents with children under the age of 6 (or under 18 if the child was disabled) had the right to request flexible working. The position as regards carers remains unchanged.

Statutory Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures – ACAS Code of Practice: from 6 April 2009, the statutory dispute resolution procedures are repealed in their entirety and are replaced by a new ACAS Code for disciplinary and grievance procedures.
In summary:-

1. Tribunals are able to make an adjustment of up to 25 per cent of the award made if an employer/employee unreasonably fails to follow the guidance in the Code, but failure to follow the Code does not make a dismissal automatically unfair, nor does it preclude an employee from bringing proceedings.

2. The new Code provides greater flexibility for employers to deal with grievance and disciplinary matters.

3. Discipline

The Code lists 6 key points in handling disciplinary issues. These are:

1. Establish the facts of the case;
2. Inform the employee of the problem;
3. Hold a meeting without unreasonable delay with the employee to discuss the problem;
4. Allow the employee to be accompanied to the meeting;
5. Decide on appropriate action; and
6. Provide the employee with an opportunity to appeal.

4. Grievance

The Code lists 5 key points in handling grievance issues. These are:

1. Let the employer know the nature of the grievance;
2. Hold a meeting without unreasonable delay with the employee to discuss the grievance;
3. Allow the employee to be accompanied to the meeting;
4. Decide on appropriate action; and
5. Allow the employee to take the grievance further if not resolved.

Employers should bear in mind that there are transitional provisions that determine whether a disciplinary or grievance procedure will be covered by the old or the new regime. In some cases the statutory dispute resolution procedures will continue to apply to grievances until October this year.

Please note that this information is provided for general knowledge only and therefore specific advice should be sought for individual cases.

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