by Quantrills Solicitors

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Q              1 October 2007

October’s new employment law

Dear All,

 

Here is some lunchtime reading for you.  Being October 1^st, this is one of the dates when new employment law and regulations come into force (the other is April 6^th).  These are summarised below.  If you require more information or assistance in working out how the changes may affect your organisation, please contact me or Julie. 

 

Regards

Simon Quantrill

 

Tel:       01473 688100

Email:   simon.quantrill@quantrills-solicitors.co.uk

Email:   julie.temple@quantrills-solicitors.co.uk

Increase in statutory annual leave

The annual statutory leave entitlement for full-time workers has been increased from 20 to 24 days (4.8 weeks), as from today under the amended Working Time Regulations 1998.  The entitlement will increase again to 5.6 weeks on 1 April 2009.  Together this will represent an increase of 8 days for full-time workers, to take account of the 8 public holidays.  It will still be a matter of agreement between the employer and worker as to when these extra days may be taken.  For employers who already allow employees to take the 8 days public/bank holidays as paid leave, no further action is required to comply with the change in statutory annual leave entitlement.

ACAS has today published a useful guide ‘Holidays and Holiday Pay’ – see www.acas.org

National minimum wage increase

As from today the new National Minimum Wage rates are £5.35 to £5.52 for workers aged over 22; £4.45 to £4.60 for workers aged between 18 – 21 and those aged 22 and over during accredited training in the first 6 months of employment; and £3.30 to 3.40 for workers aged between 16 and 17.

New Directors’ duties – Companies Act 2006

As from today, directors’ duties have been codified in Part 10 of the Companies Act 2006.  (Additional provisions relating to conflicts of interest, directors’ residential addresses and under aged and natural directors come into force on 1 October 2008).  The key change which comes into force today relates to the statutory requirement for directors to promote the success of the company (section 172) and to have regard, among other things, to a list of factors in exercising their duty of good faith.  The existing concept of a director’s fiduciary duty to act in good faith in the best interests of the company is now replaced by this codification. 

All companies must ensure that their directors are aware of their duties under the Companies Act 2006.  This can be done, for example, by Boards receiving a briefing on the new duties, which should also be provided to all new directors on their appointment.

In practice all new Director Service Agreements should now include a reference to the director being required to comply with their ‘statutory duties’.  Secondly, companies should revise their existing employment policies in areas such as hr, ethics, compliance and corporate responsibility to take into account the new statutory duties.

Boards should review their policies on minutes of meetings in determining how compliance with section 172 will be documented (e.g. minutes, briefing papers and presentations etc) as directors may be exposed to risk if the Board minutes deal inconsistently with the section 172 matters.

Commission for Equality and Human Rights

The Equal Opportunities Commission, Commission for Racial Equality and Disability Rights Commission have as from today all merged into the Commission for Equality and Human Rights.  The CEHR will assume responsibility for promoting equality in human rights and will combat unlawful discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation, religion or belief and age, in addition to sex, race and disability discrimination.

Flexible working | extension of adopter and foster carer definitions

The Flexible Worker (Eligibility, Complaints and Remedies) (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2007, extends the definition of ‘adopter’ to those who are adopting a child (whether domestically or inter-country), where the child has not be placed with the adopter by a UK adoption agency. 

Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006

As from today this Act comes into force, to create a new criminal offence of stirring up hatred against persons on religious grounds, which augments the existing offences in the Public Order Act 1986.  Religious discrimination in the work place can now also amount to a criminal offence, for which both individuals and corporate bodies can be found liable.

Employment Judges

There is one additional change which will be of interest.  As from 1 December 2007, Employment Tribunal Chairman thereafter will be called ‘Employment Judges’.  With the new name of Employment Judge it remains to be seen if the current funding difficulties experienced by the Employment Tribunals Service will be improved.  Many employers will be aware that too many cases are being postponed for ‘lack of judicial resources’.  This can be very frustrating when time and effort is put into preparing a case to have it postponed at very short notice because there is no one available to hear the case, regardless of what they are called!