Half yearly round up – Employment Law

As ever there have been several employment law changes already this year with which to keep up to date. Below is a summary of the headline changes:

1. Despite Brexit the EU directive General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will come into force in May 2018. Whilst this may seem a long way off employers are being advised to review their data protection position as the directive brings with it some sweeping changes in how data is both kept and consent obtained. From an employment law perspective employers are advices to review their policies and processes relating to privacy notices, data breach responses and subject access requests.
2. The Gender Pay Gap reporting requirements have now come into force for those organisations with 250 or more employees.
3. The National Minimum Wage has been increased. The rate for workers 25 and over is now £7.50. For all other rates please click on the following link:     https://www.gov.uk/national-minimum-wage-rates
4. In addition to the increase in National Minimum Wage, the weekly rates of statutory maternity pay, maternity allowance, statutory adoption pay and statutory shared parental pay have increased to £140.98. Whilst statutory sick pay has increased to £89.35.
5. The Apprenticeship levy is now in force for employers whose annual wage bill is over £3 million. They will be required to pay 0.5% of their wage bill. It does not just affect those who have the large wage bill though. For employers who do not meet this criterion as of 01 May 2017, Employers will have to make a 10% contribution to the costs of training their apprentices.

Finally, please keep up to date with the recent cases involving Uber and Pimlico. As you may know these cases have looked at an individual’s employment status. If you have contractors and/or freelancers working for you, now is a good time to double check that they do fall into the category of the genuinely self-employed.

For any further help or advice on employment law matters please contact us on 01225 585756 or email us on [email protected]