2019 sees changes in employment law and it’s good news for employees all over UK as they can now expect much more favourable treatment and lesser discriminations in the workplace.
Pay will dominate the 2019 employment law agenda
People working in HR are aware that the year 2019 is going to be a busy year for them. Government has announced good work plans employment lawyer, Tom Street, from TribunalClaim.com asserts that pay will be a dominant agenda in 2019. While companies are asked to give gender gap reporting, companies with more than 250 employees will also be required to report difference in pay on various levels. By the end of April, National Minimum Wage rate will increase and there will be many other developments regarding the same. There has been a robust approach to enforce minimum wages by the government.
More developments are expected in relation to employment status. The government recently published reforms to strengthen the rights of workers working in zero hour contracts, gig economy as well as agency employees. These proposed reforms will come in full force in April 2019 and a substantial increase in tribunal fines is expected for serious breach of rights of employees.
Pay gap reporting
The beginning of the new year saw new laws coming into force which required UK listed companies that have more than 250 employees to report annual on the pay gaps between various levels of employees from chief executive to an average UK worker. The first report on the same is said to be published in 2020. This report is in addition to gender pay gap reporting for organisations with 250 or more employees. The first “gender pay gap report” was published in 2018. Employers are required to do it again this year with 4th April being the last date to submit the report. Those employers who identified a gap in pay last year and laid out action plans to rectify the situation, their employees will be eager to see how much of the plan was implemented and whether it worked or not. If the employers have identified a large pay gap but no action was taken, this may be the right time to do so.
National Minimum Wage
There will be an increase in National Minimum Wages on April 1st 2019 which will also include National Living Wages for workers beyond the age of 25.
Payslip information
Another reform coming in by the month of April enforces the employers to include pay slips, details on the total number of hours worked for in case of variable pay. These payslips will have to be provided to workers as well as employees.
#MeToo
The year 2018 saw a phenomenal #Metoo campaign which encourages more and more people to talk about the issues of sexual harassment. This led to government making it legal for employers to prevent sexual harassment at workplaces and provide more and more support to people who raise concern regarding harassment or bring tribunal claims.
Good Work Plan
The Good Work Plan set out by the government in order to achieve fair and decent work with scope of development and fulfilment in future for all UK employees. The first part of proposed reforms will come into regulation on 6th April 2019. This is expected to see maximum tribunal fines which will be issued to employers for a breach of rights and contract.