The following key changes to employment law will come into force in April 2020:

• The National Minimum Wage (Amendment) Regulations 2020 increase the national minimum wage (NMW) and national living wage (NLW) rates from 1 April 2020. The NLW for workers aged 25 or over increases to £8.72 per hour, the NMW standard rate for workers aged 21 to 24 increases to £8.20 per hour, the NMW development rate for workers aged 18 to 20 increases to £6.45 per hour, the NMW young workers rate for those aged 16 and 17 increases to £4.55 per hour and the NMW apprentice rate increases to £4.15 per hour. 

• The Social Security Benefits Up-rating Order 2020 will increase the standard weekly rates of statutory maternity, adoption, paternity and shared parental pay from £148.68 to £151.20 from 5 April 2020 and it will also increase the weekly rate of statutory sick pay from £94.25 to £95.85 from 6 April 2020. The earnings threshold, below which employees are not entitled to these statutory payments, will increase from £118 to £120 per week from 6 April 2020. 

• The Employment Rights (Increase of Limits) Order 2020 will increase the maximum amount of a “week’s pay” from £525 to £538 from 6 April 2020. A week’s pay is used to calculate statutory redundancy payments, the unfair dismissal basic and additional awards and payments to employees in the event of insolvency. From the same date, the Order also increases the limit on the unfair dismissal compensatory award from £86,444 to £88,519 and it increases the limit on the daily amount of statutory guarantee pay from £29 to £30.

• The Automatic Enrolment (Earnings Trigger and Qualifying Earnings Band) Order 2020 freezes the earnings trigger, which determines when an eligible worker is entitled to be automatically enrolled into a workplace pension scheme, at £10,000 from 6 April 2020. It also continues to align the qualifying earnings band with NI contributions from 6 April 2020, so the lower limit of the band will increase from £6,136 to £6,240, and the upper limit of the band will remain at £50,000. The qualifying earnings band is used to calculate pension scheme contributions.

• The National Minimum Wage (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2020 will come into force on 6 April 2020 to: (a) allow additional payment cycles for salaried hours work (so enabling salaried hours workers to be paid in additional equal instalments to weekly or monthly, such as fortnightly or four-weekly), (b) give employers the discretion to choose the calculation year for their salaried hours workers, and (c) allow employers to make premium payments to their salaried hours workers in respect of basic hours (such as for working on a bank holiday) which will not form part of the workers’ remuneration for calculating NMW pay, meaning such workers will be able to receive premium pay without falling outside of salaried hours work.

• The remaining parts of the Employment Rights (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2019 come into force on 6 April 2020 to: (a) confer the right to receive a written statement of employment particulars upon all workers, and (b) reduce the percentage threshold required for employees to make a request to their employer (where it has at least 50 employees) to negotiate on the introduction of information and consultation arrangements from 10% to 2% of employees (subject to a minimum of 15 employees).

• The Employment Rights (Employment Particulars and Paid Annual Leave) (Amendment) Regulations 2018 come into force on 6 April 2020 to: (a) require employers to provide a written statement of employment particulars on or before the first day of the employee’s employment or worker’s engagement, (b) add to the information which must be included within the written statement, and (c) change the reference period used for calculating statutory holiday pay that applies for determining an average week’s pay where a worker has variable remuneration – the reference period is increased from 12 weeks to 52 weeks (or the number of weeks for which the worker has been employed if less than 52). 

• The Agency Workers (Amendment) Regulations 2019 come into force on 6 April 2020 to repeal the Swedish derogation for agency workers, with the result that agencies will no longer be able to include a clause in agency workers’ contracts excluding them from the right to the same pay as direct recruits. 

• The Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses (Amendment) Regulations 2019 will come into force on 6 April 2020 to ensure that individuals using the services of employment businesses to find work receive a document which sets out certain prescribed key information concerning their relationship.

• The Parental Bereavement (Leave and Pay) Act 2018 introduces a new statutory right to parental bereavement leave, enabling all employees to take one or two weeks off work following the death of a child under the age of 18 or a stillbirth after 24 weeks or pregnancy, where that death or stillbirth occurs on or after 6 April 2020. Statutory parental bereavement pay may also be payable, depending on the employee’s length of service and earnings. The Act is supplemented by the Parental Bereavement Leave Regulations 2020 and the Statutory Parental Bereavement Pay (General) Regulations 2020, as well as various other sets of regulations.

• The Employment Allowance (Excluded Persons) Regulations 2020 come into force on 6 April 2020 to provide that employers with a secondary Class 1 NI liability of £100,000 or more in the preceding tax year will no longer be entitled to the employment allowance for tax year 2020/21 and subsequent tax years.

• The Employment Allowance (Increase of Maximum Amount) Regulations 2020 come into force on 6 April 2020 to increase the maximum amount of the employment allowance from £3,000 to £4,000 for tax year 2020/21 and subsequent tax years.

• The National Insurance Contributions (Termination Awards and Sporting Testimonials) Act 2019 will align the employers’ NI treatment of termination payments in excess of £30,000 with the income tax treatment in respect of employment terminations on or after 6 April 2020, by introducing an employers’ Class 1A NI charge to any part of a termination payment that is already liable to income tax.
   

Source: New feed