 A review of recent and forthcoming changes
in Employment Law. Welcome to Wansbroughs Employment Law Update for December 2011. At the end of another busy year Wansbroughs Employment Law team thought that it would be a good opportunity to review and summarise the changes in employment law that have occurred during 2011 and forthcoming changes in 2012. Recent changes Agency Workers Regulations 2010 On 1 October 2011 the Agency Workers Regulations came into force. After 12 weeks working in the same role an agency worker is now entitled to the same basic working and employment conditions as the employer's permanent employees. National Minimum Wage increases The following increases took effect on 1 October 2011: - The standard (adult) rate (workers aged 21 and over) increased to £6.08 per hour
- The development rate (workers aged between 18 and 21) increased to £4.98 per hour
- Young workers rate (workers aged under 18 but over the school compulsory age who are not apprentices) increased to £3.68 per hour.
Bribery Act 2010 The Bribery Act 2010 came into force on 1 July 2011. It extends the crime of bribery to cover all private sector transactions (previously bribery offences were confined to transactions involving public officials and agents). It also contains a new strict liability offence of failing to prevent bribery. An organisation will only have a defence to this offence if it can show it had "adequate procedures" in place to prevent bribery. Abolition of default retirement age The default retirement age of 65 was abolished on 6 April 2011. Unless appropriate notices have already been given it is no longer possible to dismiss an employee fairly on the grounds of retirement. Holiday pay and sickness absence Workers continue to accrue holiday entitlement during sickness absence and can take holiday during sickness absence. The Employment Appeal Tribunal has however now stated that workers can only claim pay in respect of holiday if they have actually given notice to take holiday. Forthcoming changes April 2012 changes The government has announced that it plans to bring into force a number of changes in April 2012. These include: - Unfair Dismissal - increasing the qualifying period from one to two years.
- Costs awards - increasing the maximum amount of costs that a Tribunal can award from £10,000 to £20,000.
Additional government changes The government has also announced that it proposes to make further changes, although no implementation dates have yet been given.These include: - Early ACAS conciliation - employees will be offered ACAS pre claim conciliation before going to the Employment Tribunal.
- Mediation - the government will undertake a long term reform programme to increase the use of mediation to resolve disputes.
New employer pension duties New laws coming into force in October 2012 will require all employers to enrol eligible job holders into a pension scheme. The new duties will be implemented over four years starting on 1 October 2012, with larger employers being affected first. At the beginning of next year you will receive an invitation to our annual Employment Update breakfast seminar at the Bear Hotel, when we will discuss all these changes in more detail. We hope that you will be able to join us. In the meantime … Seasons Greetings from all the Wansbroughs Employment Law Team | 
