News & Updates
Clarion HR will provide you with news and features from within the Employment Law field to ensure you are kept up to date with changes.
Useful Tips
When an employee is entitled to a statutory payment please use these figures below;
Statutory Sick Pay – Awarded after 4 or more days off £95.85
Statutory Adoption Pay – 90% of employees average weekly earnings for the first six weeks and then £151.20 per week or 90% of employees average weekly earnings, whichever is lower.
Statutory Maternity Pay – 90% of employees average weekly earnings for the first six weeks and then £151.20 or 90% of average weekly earnings, whichever is lower.
Statutory Paternity Pay – £151.20 or 90% of employees average weekly earnings, whichever is lower.
Shared Parental Pay – £151.20 or 90% of employees average weekly earnings, whichever is lower.
National Minimum Wage – Aged 25 and above £8.72 per hour; Aged 21 – 24 £8.20 per hour; Aged 18 – 20 £6.45 per hour; 16 – 17 year old’s £4.55 per hour.
All rates are correct as of April 2020. Please be aware that rates may increase and this website will be updated accordingly.
For more advice on the rates above or any of the news articles please contact Clarion HR.
New Right to Written Statement of Terms
With effect from 6 April 2020, all new employees and workers will have the right to a statement of written particulars from their first day of employment. Currently, employees who have been continuously employed for more than one month must be provided with a written statement within two months of employment commencing.
Given the new obligation is to provide particulars on ‘day one,’ employers should begin preparation of the revised statement of particulars during the recruitment stage and ensure that these include every element of the new requirement.
Details that must now be included are; the days of the week the worker is required to work and whether working hours are days may vary, any entitlement to paid leave, including maternity and paternity leave, any other remuneration or benefits provided by the employer, any probation period including any conditions and its duration, any training provided by the employer, notice periods, terms relating to sickness and sick pay, terms relating to fixed term working or temporary working, terms related to work outside of the UK for a period of more than one month.
Employers will need to bear in mind that this extends to workers and not just employees. Employers should therefore consider who might qualify as a worker, issuing contracts of employment to employees and issuing a separate template to those who are deemed to be workers.
Employers are urged to make sure offer letters and written particulars are sent out in advance to new starters ensuring a smooth induction process for their new employee.
New Parental Bereavement Law
The Parental Bereavement (Leave and Pay) Act 2018 (also known as ‘Jacks Law’) will come into force in April 2020. Bereaved parents will now have the right to two weeks paid leave following the loss of a child under the age of 18, or a stillbirth after 24 weeks of pregnancy where they have been employed continuously for 26 weeks. For those parents with less than 26 weeks service, they will be entitled to 2 weeks unpaid leave. Bereaved parents will be entitled to take their leave in one two-week block or in two separate blocks of one week. The leave must be taken before the end of a period of at least 56 days beginning with the date of the child’s death.
Changes to IR35 rules for the Private Sector
At present, the IR35 rules apply where an individual (worker) personally performs services for another person (client), through an intermediary, and if the services were provided under a direct contract, the worker would be regarded for tax purposes as being employed by the client. Currently, it is the intermediary’s responsibility to determine whether IR35 applies.
With effect from 6 April 2020, the changes to IR35 will be implemented for medium and large businesses in the private sector and will largely mirror changes that took place in the public sector in 2017. Under the new regime, for all contracts entered into, or payments made on or after 6 April 2020, the onus will shift from the worker to the client to make a status determination. Responsibility for accounting tax and national insurance will shift to the party who pays for the individuals services.
In anticipation of these changes, it is essential that medium and large businesses carry out an assessment to determine whether the new rules under IR35 apply to their independent contractors and review their contracts and pay arrangements. Small businesses will not be affected by the changes.
Holiday Pay Reference Period Adjustment
Due to recent case law that has been in the press for the past couple of years there has been much written about the calculation of holiday pay. For those employees who have variable hours and variable rates of pay it can be tricky to calculate. With effect from 6 April 2020, the holiday pay reference pay period will increase from a 12 week period to 52 weeks. Employers will be required to look back at the previous 52 weeks where a worker has worked and received pay, discarding any weeks not worked or where no pay was received, to calculate the average weekly pay. It is hoped that this change will help to even out the variation in pay for workers, particularly those in seasonal or atypical roles.