Mark Cornish, Partner and Employment Law specialist -
- On 1 October 2009, a weeks pay for the purposes of calculating redundancy was raised from £350 per week to £380.
- From 1 October 2009, employees’ tips and gratuities are excluded from any calculations of the minimum wage.
- The adult rate of the National Minimum Wage (NMW) was raised to £5.80 (£5.73) an hour in October 2009. This is payable to those age 22 and over. The hourly youth development rate will increase to £4.83 (£4.77) and for 16 and 17 year olds to £3.57 (£3.53) an hour.
- If you weren’t aware already by now from 1 April 2009, the ill fated statutory grievance and disciplinary procedures were repealed. A revised ACAS code of practice replaces them and failure to comply with it will be indicative of an unfair dismissal, if not conclusive.
- The Equality Bill 2009 was presented to Parliament in April 2009 and is currently making its way through Parliament. See further below.
The contents of the Equality Bill 2009 are intended to be law in Spring 2010, although some provisions may not end up in force until significantly later than this. The Bill is likely to have a profound effect on discrimination legislation.
In its current form the Bill proposes to repeal almost all existing discrimination law and replace it with one centralised Act. This may be an ambitious aim, given that discrimination legislation is contained in more than 9 key Acts of Parliament and more than 100 statutory instruments. The commitment to “Plain English” drafting will almost certainly lead to a slue of cases requiring clarification of the new Act’s provisions and the intention of Parliament.
But the Bill also contains wider and additional laws intended to promote equality in the workplace. For example, one small but significant change to the law will be that any attempt by employers to restrict employees from discussing their salaries, by contractual terms or otherwise, will be prohibited. This does not mean that people will be compelled to disclose details of their pay with anyone, nor will employers be compelled to tell employees what other employees are paid. But employees will be able to compare pay if they want to.
If the Bill passes in its current format, it will also introduce an element of positive discrimination. It will be potentially lawful for employers to select a candidate who comes from an underrepresented group of people in that employer’s organisation, provided that the candidates to choose from are equal in all other respects. However, the practical difficulties involved in establishing that candidates were indeed equal in all other respects, is likely to make these provisions difficult for employees to rely on. Most commentators think it unlikely that employers will change their employment and recruitment practices significantly in response to this change. There will be a duty imposed on public sector employers (not as yet in the private sector) to consider reducing “socio economic inequalities” in their workforce, in their “strategic decision making”. This may have far reaching consequences in the longer term - a form of anti “class” discrimination in its infancy.
Doubtless, this Bill will hit the headlines at regular intervals in the coming months as it makes it way through Parliament, and public awareness of its provisions increases. And of course there may well be an Election before this Bill may be enacted.
Mark Cornish is an employment law specialist and a partner with Anthony Gold Solicitors.
