Commercially astute HR solutions for your business - CJ HR Solutions

In process

• Workplace pension scheme auto-enrolment - all employers will have to provide workers with a workplace pension scheme by law. Exactly when your business must start doing this (known as a ‘staging date’) is dependent upon on how many people you employ. Check your staging date with The Pensions Regulator here.  If you don’t already offer a qualifying workplace pension scheme, you must do so before your staging date.  If you already have a workplace pension scheme, you should check if you can use it for automatic enrolment. 

January 2015

• Holiday pay – case law has resulted in changes to the way in which holiday pay is calculated and a two year limit on claims for unfair reduction from wages claims in respect of holiday pay will apply to claims presented on or after 1 July 2015.
• Employment agencies and employment businesses in Great Britain are banned from advertising jobs exclusively in other European Economic Area countries without advertising them at home.

April 2015

• Shared Parental Leave - the new shared parental leave scheme is now in place for parents whose babies were due on or after 5 April 2015, or who had children placed for adoption on or after that date. The shared parental leave rate from 5 April is £139.58, in line with other maternity, paternity and adoption allowances.
• Adoption rights - the 26 week qualifying period for adoption leave was removed and statutory adoption pay was brought in to line with statutory maternity pay; adopters can take paid time off for some 'adoption appointments’.
• The right to take unpaid ordinary parental leave was extended to parents of any child under the age of 18.
• The Pension Schemes Act 2015 enables people with a defined contribution pension to access their pension more flexibly.
• Basic rates of maternity allowance and statutory maternity pay (SMP), statutory paternity pay (SPP) and statutory adoption pay (SAP) all increased from £138.18 to £139.58.
• The rate of statutory sick pay (SPP) increased from £87.55 to £88.45.
• Increased limits on employment tribunal awards came into force (see Compensation Rates).

October 2015

• National Minimum Wage rates – will increase from 1 October: the standard adult rate to £6.70, the development rate for those aged 18-20 to £5.30, the young workers rate for those aged 16-17 to £3.87, and the apprentice rate to £3.30 per hour.

Consultations in process that may affect your business

• Employment Status - a wide-ranging Government review was announced in October 2014. The focus of this consultation is to highlight awareness and put in place additional measures to ensure that self-employed status is not incorrectly applied and that appropriate deductions are applied by employers in respect of Employers NI and PAYE and that employment rights correctly applied.  Penalties already apply to employers who get this wrong.