Employment Law Changes – What’s New for 2014?

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Twice a year we run an Employment Law update workshop, where we go through all the recent and forthcoming changes. This helps our clients keep up to date on the law, without getting bogged down in all the details.

Here’s what we covered at our workshop in October 2014:

January 2014

  • TUPE – collective redundancy consultations can now be started before the transfer, with a requirement for service provision to be fundamentally the same before and after the transfer
  • The right to be accompanied – workers can now choose any companion to be with them in a meeting, providing they are a work colleague or a trade union representative.

March 2014

  • Employers will face penalties of up to 100% of the unpaid wages and a maximum penalty of £20,000 for not paying the National Minimum Wage
  • Rehabilitation periods have been reduced and fewer convictions now need to be disclosed.

April 2014

  • Early conciliation – Acas must now be contacted before a tribunal application can be made
  • The discrimination questionnaire has been abolished
  • Tribunal financial penalties – tribunals have the power to order penalties for the losing employers, ranging from £100 to £5000 where breach has “one or more aggravating factors”.

June 2014

  • Flexible working – this has been extended to all employees with 26 weeks service
  • Small Business and Enterprise Bill – this includes changes to National Minimum Wage breach penalties and restricting the number of postponements of tribunal hearings.

July 2014

  • TUPE changes – from 31 July businesses, employing less than 10 people are able to consult individually.

October 2014

  • National Minimum Wages were increased
  • Antenatal rights – time off must be given for an employee to accompany a pregnant partner for two appointments.

Watch this space for news of our next Employment Law workshop, which will be held in April or May 2015, when we’ll discuss the next round of changes. These will include changes to parental leave, adoption rights and shared parental leave in April 2015; and a new tax free childcare scheme in the Autumn 2015.

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