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Pod 6, The Engine Rooms, Station Road
Chepstow
Monmouthshire

01633 730907

For more than 10 years we have provided companies of all sizes and in a variety of sectors with uncomplicated, innovative and affordable human resources advice and on-site support ensuring that your people are an asset to your company and not a liability.

News

With the National Minimum Wage (NMW) now almost fifteen years old, and with another increase pending on 1st April 2017 HMRC have issued a list of the most elaborate excuses they've been given by employers for not paying the appropriate rates:

Employment Law Update

Alan Kitto

After a number of years of there being very few changes to employment law, we’ve seen a number of changes over the last few months and have sight of more to come over the next eighteen months; I wanted to take an opportunity to summarise what’s been happening and what’s still to come.

With effect from 1st April 2025, the National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage rates increased to:

  • £7.55 for those under the age of eighteen (or for those in the first year of a formal apprenticeship)

  • £10.00 for those aged between eighteen and twenty

  • £12.21 for those aged twenty-one and above

Also with effect from the beginning of April 2025, employees who are parents of babies who require neonatal care will gain a new statutory right to Neonatal Care Leave and Pay.

This entitlement will support parents whose babies are admitted to hospital for specialist neonatal care within the first 28 days of life. If the stay lasts 7 days or more, qualifying employees will be entitled to:

  • Up to twelve weeks of Neonatal Care Leave on top of their other parental leave rights

  • Neonatal Care Pay, subject to eligibility.

We have created a Neonatal Care Leave and Pay Policy which is free of charge for our retained clients, if you’d like a copy, please let me know.

Following on from the Supreme Court decision that a ‘woman’ is a biological woman or girl (a person born female), the Equality and Human Rights Commission has issued an update highlighting the consequences of the ruling.

The update states:

In workplaces, it is compulsory to provide sufficient single-sex toilets, as well as sufficient single-sex changing and washing facilities where these facilities are needed.

In workplaces and services that are open to the public:

    • trans women (biological men) should not be permitted to use the women’s facilities and trans men (biological women) should not be permitted to use the men’s facilities, as this will mean that they are no longer single-sex facilities and must be open to all users of the opposite sex

    • in some circumstances the law also allows trans women (biological men) not to be permitted to use the men’s facilities, and trans men (biological woman) not to be permitted to use the women’s facilities

    • however where facilities are available to both men and women, trans people should not be put in a position where there are no facilities for them to use

    • where possible, mixed-sex toilet, washing or changing facilities in addition to sufficient single-sex facilities should be provided

    • where toilet, washing or changing facilities are in lockable rooms (not cubicles) which are intended for the use of one person at a time, they can be used by either women or men

The Employment Rights Bill is progressing through the legislative process, this is the Bill that will introduce the Government’s campaign pledges, although some of these have been either abandoned or put on hold for the foreseeable future.

One of the changes will be new rules regarding Statutory Sick Pay (SSP).

Once the changes have been implements, SSP will be payable from day of each period of absence removing the current three day waiting period.

In addition, these earning below the National Insurance Lower Earnings Level will become eligible for SSP at 80% of their average weekly earnings.

The Government has said that the changes to SSP will not come in to force before April 2026.

From October 2026, employees will gain a number of rights from their first day of employment, including the right to bring an unfair dismissal claim and eligibility for parental leave and bereavement leave.

The Government has said that dismissals within a probationary period (of up to nine months) will be allowed but has not yet issued guidelines as to how this will work or what process may need to be followed by employers, just that a ‘soft-touch’ will apply to dismissals that fall within this period.

One more important change will be in relation to an employers obligations to prevent harassment, whether from internal or external sources.  Currently the legislation requires employers to take ‘reasonable steps’, this will change to ‘all reasonable steps’ which is a far more onerous test.

We will provide more information as and when this is available.

Please don’t hesitate to ask if you have any questions or need more information.