1. Contracts of employment:
a. Employers will have to provide employees with a contract on or before day one of employment. At the moment this can be provided within the first eight weeks.
b. Contracts will need to be provided to employees and workers. Currently, workers are not legally entitled to a contract. (A worker is someone who works or undertakes to perform personally work or services for the business.)
c. The information required to go into these contracts is expanding to include training and benefits.
2. Changes to holiday pay calculations – currently if staff have variable hours, to calculate holiday pay an average is taken of hours worked and pay received over the last 12 weeks. From April, employers will have to take an average over the previous 52 weeks of employment.
3. Parental bereavement leave – there will be a new statutory entitlement for parents who have lost a child under the age of 18.
4. Zero hour workers – there is likely to be new legislation to allow zero hour workers the right to request a more permanent and stable contract after 26 weeks’ service.
5. National Living Wage – the hourly rate of pay for people aged 25 or above will increase in April to £8.72 per hour.
6. DBS checks – the Government has announced that it will review the disclosure regime, particularly the rules relating to the disclosure of youth criminality. Detailed information about the changes is expected later this year.
If you have any questions on the above, email hdahill@morganlaroche.com
