Show # 2: Significant employment law developments for smaller businesses in 2016
Hello and welcome to the second MY Virtual HR Radio Show of the year.
In this show I will looking forward to the most significant employment law developments for smaller businesses in 2016, and it looks like being a busy year.
Key developments in 2016 include:
**Zero hours contracts: As we reported in the Breaking News section of My Virtual HR, real protection for zero hours contracts has been introduced by The Zero Hours Contracts (Redress) Regulations 2015, which are now in force. The Regulations addresses that issue and provide that:
- Any dismissal of a zero hours contract employee is automatically unfair if the principal reason is that he or she breached a contractual clause prohibiting him or her from working for another employer;
- There is no qualifying period required to bring such an unfair dismissal claim; and,
- It is also unlawful to submit a zero hour worker (note: worker not employee) to detriments if they work for another employer in breach of a clause prohibiting them from doing so.
**Holiday pay: The Employment Appeal Tribunal's judgment in Lock v British Gas Trading Ltd will be delivered early this year. The decision will confirm whether holiday pay under UK law can be read so as to include commission and other similar payments in order to comply with EU law.
**Staff handbooks: In February, the Court of Appeal is scheduled to hear Sparks v Department of Transport and consider whether the terms of a staff handbook are incorporated into employees’ contracts and so cannot be changed unilaterally by the employer.
**Agency workers: In the case of Moran v Ideal Cleaning Services Ltd, the Employment Appeal Tribunal ruled that a group of employees who were employed to provide cleaning services at the premises of their employer’s client were not agency workers within the meaning of the Agency Workers Regulations 2010. In March, the Court of Appeal is scheduled to hear the appeal from the EAT, in which it will consider the definition of “temporary” agency workers for the purposes of the Agency Worker Regulations 2010.
**National living wage: The National Living Wage, which applies to workers aged 25 and over, will come into force on 1 April 2016. This will entitle eligible workers to a minimum wage of £7.20 per hour.
**Employment status: The Court of Appeal is expected in hear the case of Pimlico Plumbers Ltd v Smith in May of this year, and will consider the meaning of self-employment and the degree of personal financial risk required for an individual to be regarded as self-employed.
**TUPE: We are staying in the Court of Appeal, this time in June, for the case of BT Managed Services Ltd v Edwards. In this case, the Court is required to determine whether an employee on permanent sickness absence is “assigned” to an organised grouping of employees for the purposes of a TUPE transfer and so becomes an employee of the transferee.
**Whistleblowing: The Court of Appeal is scheduled to hear Chesterton Global Ltd v Nurmohamed in October. Listeners will recall from the last show that this case is about the public interest test in determining whether a worker’s complaint amounts to a protected disclosure for the purpose of whistleblowing claims.
**Redundancy consultations: the Court of Appeal may be scheduled this year considering the scope of collective redundancy consultation, namely: The meaning of “establishment” in the Woolworths/Ethel Austin case case; and when an employer is regarded as “proposing” to dismiss 20 or more employees so as to trigger collective consultation in the USA v Nolan case.
**Enforcement of Tribunal awards: The Government is bringing the new 'unpaid award penalties' into force from April 2016. new provisions in the Employment Tribunals Act 1996 enable the Government to issue a 'warning notice' if any awards or settlements remain unpaid. If the monies remain unpaid, the employer will be subject to a 'penalty notice' of 50% of the outstanding amount, subject to a £100 minimum and £5,000 maximum. The penalty is payable to the Secretary of State, not the employee.
**Immigration: The Immigration Bill, currently progressing through Parliament, will, among other things:
- Expand the offence of employing illegal migrants to circumstances where an employer has “reasonable cause to believe” it is employing an illegal migrant; and
- Introduce powers to impose an “immigration skills charge” on employers who sponsor skilled workers from outside the EEA.
There you have our pick of the employment law highlights of 2016 for smaller businesses. As always, these developments will be reported and commented upon in the breaking news section of My Virtual HR. www.myvirtualhr.co.uk
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Today's show was written and presented by Robert Reddin. Music was by Kevin MacLoed (incompetech.com) and licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
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