What employment law changes are coming in 2012?

There’s always new legislation flying around in the run-up to the Budget, and this year is no different. We’ve put together a round-up of the employment law changes we know are happening and those that are anticipated in 2012.

Unfair Dismissal

At Workline we’ve already talked about, in overhauling employment legislation, the very important change to the qualifying period to claim unfair dismissal and we can now confirm that the qualifying period for an employee to bring an unfair dismissal claim against their Employer, to an Employment Tribunal, will  increase from one year to two years from 6th April 2012.  There is also a possibility that ‘protected conversations’ in the workplace will be introduced during 2012 – for more details see here.

Pension Auto-Enrolment

The introduction of the Pension Auto-enrolment scheme.  From 1st October 2012 Employers of 50 or more workers will have to enrol these workers automatically into a ‘qualifying workplace pension scheme’ or the National Employment Savings Trust (Nest) and make Employer contributions.  More details of the scheme are still expected but we believe that businesses with less than 50 workers will not have to auto-enrol their staff into such a pension scheme until May 2015.

Tribunals

The Government is conducting a review of the Employment Tribunal Rules of Procedures, and new rules about procedures at Tribunal are expected to be introduced on 6th April 2012.  More details, as they stand now,  in our previous article here.

Statutory Redundancy Payments

The maximum amount a week’s pay can be, when calculating statutory redundancy payments, increases to £430 (from £400) on 1st February 2012.

Guarantee Payments

The maximum amount payable as a Guarantee Payment increases to £23.50 per day (from £22.20 per day) on 1st February 2012. Guarantee Payments explained: If an Employer has to temporarily close their business premises at short notice and there is no work available for its employees as a result this is called a period of lay-off.  During a lay-off you are entitled to receive normal pay (unless there is a contractual right to be laid off without pay or employees consent to not being paid).If your contract of employment has a right for the Employer to impose a period of lay-off without pay, or you consent to a period of lay-off without pay, you should be entitled to a Statutory Guarantee Payment for any complete day of lay-off.

Maternity, Paternity and Sickness

The statutory rates for Maternity Pay, Paternity Pay and Adoption Pay increase to £135.45 per week (from £128.73 per week) from 1st April 2012. The statutory rate for Sickness Pay increases to £85.85 per week (from £81.60) from 6th April 2012.

TUPE

There is a possibility that the Government may amend the laws on TUPE and Collective Redundancy Consultation and it has announced it may remove the third-party harassment provisions of the Equality Act 2010.

Workline is supported by Employment Lawyers Goodman Derrick LLP.  Please note that the advice given on this website and by our Advisors is guidance only and cannot be taken as an authoritative interpretation of the law. It can also not be seen as specific advice for individual cases. Please also note that there are differences in legislation in Northern Ireland.

Be Sociable, Share!

•