Gardner Leader

With the arrival of April comes another round of Employment Law changes, from an increase in the amount of statutory holiday to the complete repeal of the Statutory Discipline and Dismissal procedures.  Gardner Leader Employment Lawyer Julie Taylor highlights some of the key legal changes and examines what these might mean for your business.

What is changing?

Statutory Holiday

With effect from 1 April 2009, statutory annual leave is being increased to 5.6 weeks. This is equivalent to 28 days for employees who work a five day week. As there is still no statutory right (paid or unpaid) to  leave on public or bank holidays, those employers who already give time off on public holidays may not need to change their existing contracts. However, employers who need to increase their annual leave entitlement in order to comply, need to notify the employees of their increased entitlement. 

Statutory Discipline and Dismissal Procedures

On  6 April 2009 the Statutory Discipline and Dismissal procedures, which have been a requirement for employers to follow when dismissing an employee or taking disciplinary action, are abolished. The regime that replaces these procedures is based around a new ACAS Code of Practice. One of the main consequences is that dismissals will no longer be automatically unfair if the employer fails to follow the correct procedure, although there are transitional provisions that must be observed and dismissals may still be unfair if the ACAS code is not followed.

Statutory Sick Pay and Statutory Maternity Pay

From the 6^th April 2009 the statutory rates are increasing:

• Statutory Sick Pay is increasing from £75.40 to £79.15
• Statutory Maternity, Paternity and Adoption pay is increasing from £117.18 to £123.06 per week.

What does this mean?

The increase in holiday and rates of statutory pay should be relatively straight-forward and compliance just requires some simple adjustments. The situation regarding the abolition of the statutory discipline and dismissal procedures is less clear. Ultimately, it should mean a return to a common-sense approach to managing employees and dismissing them and ensuring fairness by complying with the ACAS code. However, this will not happen overnight as there are a number of transitional arrangements which mean that the procedures are likely to remain relevant until at least 2010.  

Employment Tribunals will still retain the power to increase compensation awards in cases where the ACAS code has not been complied with, but this will be limited to up to a 25 % uplift, instead of the 10-50% uplift that was possible under the current regime.

The ACAS code itself does not depart dramatically from the requirements of the statutory Discipline and Dismissal Procedure currently in place. To summarise, when taking disciplinary action employers are required to investigate the situation, explain the problem to the employee and give them an opportunity to put forward their version of events. The process should be concluded by giving the employee a right to appeal against the decision made by the employer.

If you have a legal query regarding these changes or any other employment issue, please contact Julie Taylor at Gardner Leader LLP on 01635 508181, e-mail j.taylor@gardner-leader.co.uk