Here is a round up of some of the important changes in employment law that came into effect in April 2019:
Penalties for aggravated employment law breaches
Employers face a penalty of up to £20,000 if an Employment Tribunal finds that they have committed an aggravated breach of employment law. The penalty regime was introduced in 2014 with a maximum penalty of £5,000 but the power to make a penalty was not widely used. A £20,000 penalty may now be imposed in relation to breaches of employment law arising after 6 April 2019.
This increase gives Tribunals a green light to use the penalty powers more frequently and more vigorously. A Tribunal can consider imposing a penalty after an employer loses any Tribunal claim. But, a penalty will only be appropriate in cases where the Tribunal decides that the breach is flagrant, repeated or deliberate.
Large employers with HR teams are at greater risk of a penalty than small organisations because Tribunals are required to take the resources of the business into account when weighing up whether or not to impose a penalty. Not all penalties will be large ones. The maximum penalty should be reserved for the most serious of cases.
Payslips for “workers”
Two important changes have been made to the employer’s obligation to provide payslips:
- Payslips must now be given to those staff who are not employed under a contract of employment, but who qualify as “workers”. This will benefit those engaged under “casual” contracts (sometimes referred to as zero-hour workers), including many who work in the so-called “Gig-economy”. Workers in this category are also entitled to certain key rights such as the national minimum wage and paid annual leave and providing them with payslips will help them to check these entitlements.
- Employers are now required to state on the payslip the number of hours being paid whenever employees or workers are paid on an hourly basis.
If an employer fails to comply with the obligation to provide payslips then the affected employee or worker can complain to the Employment Tribunal. The compensation that they would receive would be very low. However, in the case of an aggravated breach the employer will be exposed to a financial penalty (see above).
New financial limits for redundancy calculations and the cap on compensation on or after 6 April 2019
In relation to dismissals taking place on or after 6 April 2019, two important financial limits have been adjusted:
- the cap on a weeks’ pay for the purpose of calculating statutory redundancy (and the basic award for unfair dismissal) increased to £525
- the limit on the compensatory award for unfair dismissal rose to £86,444. This limit will only be relevant if the employee’s annual basic salary is higher than this, because the award is otherwise limited to 52 weeks’ gross pay for the employee.
Statutory sick pay and maternity pay (and other statutory payments) updated
- The level of statutory maternity, adoption, paternity and shared parental pay rose to £148.68 per week on 7 April 2019.
Statutory sick pay rose to £94.25 on 6 April 2019.
