Happy New Year! 2019 will be a year of employment law changes, including Brexit and the team at Jackson Boyd will produce regular updates throughout the year.
Following on from last year’s important changes in GDPR and Gender Pay Gap reporting what does the first few months of 2019 have in store – here are the dates to note.
11 January 2019 – The Government are closing their consultation on a mandatory ethnicity pay gap. This Government commission sought views from employers on ethnicity pay and if there is a gap between ethnicities and whether further reporting needs to be done on this issue.
11 January 2019 – The Government consultation on the Tribunal system closes. This commission was launched to consider whether the Employment Tribunal system requires to be changed, including whether the time limits for employment claims should be raised to six months, from its current three months less one day limit; and whether the £25,000 cap on breach of contract claims in the employment tribunals should be lifted. The team at Jackson Boyd are particularly interested in the outcome of this commission as if the report recommends changes this could be a significant change to the handling of employment tribunal claims and give employees more opportunity to raise claims.
29 March 2019 – Brexit! At present there are no specific employment law changes proposed in relation to Brexit but watch this space, as it is anticipated that Brexit may bring about changes to some areas of employment law.
1 April 2019 – The National Living and Minimum Wage hourly rates will increase to £8.21 for 25 and overs, £7.70 for 21 to 24 year olds, £6.15 for 18 to 20 year olds, £4.35 for under 18’s and £3.90 for apprentices.
4 April 2019 – continuing 2018’s introduction of Gender Pay Gap reporting employers of 250 or more employees will be required to produce their second annual pay gap reports.
6 April 2019 – from this date pay slips will be required to be sent to workers as well as employees.
6 April 2019 – taxation arrangements on termination payments will change. From this date all termination payments (not just pay in lieu of notice) above the £30,000 threshold will be subject to National Insurance contributions (employers liability only) rather than income tax only – this will increase the cost of termination payments to employers and may therefore result in less generous termination packages being offered by employers.
If you are an employer or an employee who has a concern over any of the above, or any other employment law issue, the Jackson Boyd employment team has extensive experience of dealing with all employment law matters, so please get in touch by clicking here or speak to a member of our specialist team on 0333 122 6238.
