Employment Newsletter – April 2012

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A number of important changes to employment law came into force at the beginning of this month, including the qualifying period for unfair dismissal increasing from one to two years for new joiners. This will only affect employees whose employment starts on or after 6 April 2012.

Employment tribunal procedure

  • Deposit orders: The maximum deposit a tribunal will be able to order a party to pay if their claim has little reasonable prospect of success, will increase from £500 to £1,000. The change will affect all cases presented or after 6 April 2012
  • Cost awards: The maximum amount of costs an employment tribunal can award (without referring the case to County Court for detailed assessment) will increase from £10,000 to £20,000. The change will affect all cases presented on or after 6 April 2012
  • Witness statements: Where a witness statements are used, they stand as evidence in chief and be taken ‘as read’ at the hearing, unless a Judge or tribunal directs otherwise. This applies to all cases presented on or after 6 April 2012
  • Witness expenses: State-funded witness expenses are to be withdrawn. Tribunals will have the power to direct parties to bear the expenses of any witness. The Government will withdraw state-funded expenses. The new power will affect claims presented on or after 6 April 2012
  • Judges to sit alone on unfair dismissal cases: Unfair dismissal cases will be heard by a Judge sitting alone without lay members, unless the Judge orders otherwise. This will affect all cases heard on or after 6 April 2012. The Government have said that progress on this change will be reviewed after a year.

Statutory payments

From April 2012, the standard weekly rates will increase for the following payments:

  • Statutory maternity pay, statutory paternity pay and statutory adoption pay: these will increase on 1 April 2012 from £128.73 to £135.45 and the weekly threshold will rise from £102 to £107
  • Statutory sick pay: this will increase on 6 April 2012 from £81.60 to £85.85, while the weekly earnings threshold will rise from £102 to £107
  • Maternity allowance: this will increase on 9 April 2012 from £128.73 to £135.45

There are also changes to tax and pensions rate including: Income Tax, Personal Allowance, taxable bands, National Insurance contributions and Pensions Lifetime Allowance.

Apprentices

Section 32(2)(b) of the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009 states that an apprenticeship agreement entered into under the Act must be in the “prescribed form”. The Apprenticeships (Form of Apprenticeship Agreement) Regulations 2012 (SI 2012/844) which came into force on 6 April 2012, specify that the prescribed form must contain the basic terms of employment required to be given to employees under Section 1 of ERA 1996 plus a statement as to the trade or skill for which the apprentice is to be trained.

Pensions contracting-out

Contracting-out of the second state pension on a money purchase basis was abolished from 6 April. Employers will need to consider whether to issue employees with a statement of changes to the terms of their employment under Section 4 of the Employment Rights Act 1996.

As you know, employers must give a statement of certain terms of their employment to those employees whose employment is to continue for at least a month. This includes whether there is a contracting-out certificate in force un the Pensions Schemes Act 1993. They must also give the employee a written statement, containing details of any changes to those terms at the earliest opportunity and, in any event, no later than one month after the change (Section 4, ERA 1996) So the contract of employment currently in use refers to the contracting-out certificate having been issued then the employer should be providing an employee with a statement of changes under Section 4.

This only becomes significant when an employee also has a successful substantive claim at which point if the tribunal finds that the employer was in breach of its duties under Section 1 or Section 4 or ERA 1996 at the time the proceedings were begun, the tribunal may award up to four weeks’ pay, subject to the statutory cap.

On a lighter note…What’s the record for the shortest tenure?

As reported by The Beacon News, Aurora, Illinois, USA.

Casi L Biggiam, aged 27 of Aurora, has been accused of stealing a designer handbag from a resale shop in Naperville, Illinois, on the day before she was due to start a new job there. She has now been charged with theft.

Police said Biggiam went to the shop at about 5.30 pm on 13 March, to sell articles of used clothing and accessories. A red handbag was one of the items Biggiam allegedly presented to a clerk. After being given the total of what the store would pay for her goods, Biggiam said she would keep the handbag and accept payment for the other items. Employees later confirmed that the handbag had been part of the shop’s inventory and contacted the police.

Ms Biggiam was somewhat surprised when she returned the following day to start her new job, only to find herself being arrested by a police officer. There are no reports that Ms Biggiam reported for work after her release from the police station.

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