Key employment law developments: April 2020

Coronavirus (COVID-19) - employment issues in the UK

As employers around the world face the challenges of this rapidly evolving situation, we highlight the key developments for employers to have on their radar:

• Job Retention Scheme: the UK Government has announced extraordinary financial measures to support businesses and discourage redundancies by meeting the cost of salary up to £2,500 per month for furloughed workers.

• Statutory sick pay: under new legislation, the Government will temporarily allow SSP to be paid from the first day of sickness absence (SSP is not usually paid for the first three days that somebody is sick) for those who have been advised to self-isolate, as well as people caring for others in their household who are displaying COVID-19 symptoms and have been told to self-isolate.

• Strict lock-down: for at least 3 weeks, employees are to travel to work only if "absolutely necessary".

• Changes to holiday under the WTR: the Government has announced that it will amend the Working Time Regulations to allow workers to carry over EU holiday into the next two leave years. This is intended to avoid excess holiday requests at the end of the year.

• Changes to right to work checks: the Government has published guidance for employers carrying out right to work checks during the coronavirus pandemic, which introduces temporary changes to a manual right to work checks.

• Emergency volunteering leave: the Government is bringing into place a new "emergency volunteering leave" scheme where employees can apply to take blocks of unpaid leave of 2, 3 or 4 weeks to volunteer.

• IR35 reforms delayed: the Government has confirmed that it will be postponing the reforms to the off-payroll working rules from 6 April this year to 6 April 2021.

• Gender Pay Gap Reporting: the UK's gender pay gap reporting deadlines have been suspended for this year.

• Changes to Tribunal and Court hearings: court services are providing daily operational updates, recently including that London Central ET is now closed and hearings postponed.

• School closures and key workers: the Government has issued its list of "key workers" whose children can still attend school, which includes staff working to provide essential financial services.

See our Coronavirus hub for more information.

Vento bands increased

The Presidents of the Employment Tribunals have issued a new addendum to their guidance on Vento bands (which apply to injury to feelings awards in discrimination and whistleblowing claims), setting out the following increases:

Lower band: £900 - £9,000
Middle band: £9,000 - £27,00
Upper band: £27,000 to £45,000
£45,000 and above for the most exceptional cases

The increases apply to claims presented on or after 6 April 2020.

Other April 2020 changes

Amidst the cloud of coronavirus, it’s easy to forget the other important changes taking place in April this year. A quick reminder is below:

• Changes to section 1 statements: All workers (not just employees) will be entitled to a written statement of particulars of employment (a section 1 statement) on or before day 1. The statement will also need to contain some additional particulars, for example, terms and conditions relating to benefits and other paid leave.

• Agency workers: The “Swedish derogation” provisions will be abolished, meaning that all agency workers will have the right to pay parity after 12 weeks. Also, agency workers must be given a “Key information document” before agreeing terms with an employment business.

• Information and consultation: The threshold required for employees to request the establishment of an information and consultation body to be lowered from 10% to 2% (subject to a minimum of 15 employees).

• Parental bereavement leave: the new statutory right is available for parents who lose a child below the age of 18 to at least two weeks’ leave and statutory bereavement pay.

• Holiday pay calculations: The reference period for calculating holiday pay (for workers without fixed hours or pay) will be increased from 12 to 52 weeks.

• Termination payments: Class 1A NIC employer charges on termination payments of more than £30,000 are due to come into effect.

For more key employment law updates from us:

• read our Insights on key cases over the last month;
• stay Ahead of the Curve with our summaries covering the key aspects of employment law under review by the government;
• scroll through our key dates timeline showing recent and anticipated changes to employment law; and
• attend our upcoming events or catch up on training.