January’s edition of People Matter is out now! This is our monthly newsletter that gives employers and managers up to date news, tips and guidance on employing people and preventing people problems. In this month’s newsletter we explore: • Your checklist for 2015 Employment Law Changes • What a misfire! Hiring and Firing regulations • Should you be concerned by your employees’ New Year’s resolutions? • Holiday-pay overtime: Retrospective claims limited to two years • From the High Court - the judicial review on tribunal fees • Anti-social media • The Indicator – employment and litigation issues

1. matter
PEOPLE
Preventing People Problems www.hrdept.co.uk
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JANUARY 2015
Your checklist for 2015
Employment Law changes
With 2015 set to be a busy year in the world of HR here is a checklist of
changes on the horizon. All are launched in April unless otherwise stated:
• Shared parental leave – OK not technically on the horizon as it was
launched on 1 Dec 2014 but it does apply to babies expected or born
after 5th April. This gives parents freedom to choose how they split
childcare in the first year after birth. For more information click here.
• Managing sickness absence – A free service will launch for
employees, employers and GPs to provide an occupational health
assessment after four weeks of sickness absence.
• New statutory pay rates – Statutory pay for maternity, paternity,
adoption and shared parental leave will rise to £139.56 per week.
Statutory sick pay will rise to £88.45.
• Statutory adoption leave and pay – The 26-week qualifying
period will go. Adoption pay will match maternity pay (90% of
normal earnings for first six weeks).
• Unpaid parental leave – On 5th April this right will extend to
parents of any child below 18.
• Surrogate parents eligible for adoption leave – Surrogate
parents will have the same leave and pay rights as ordinary parents.
These include unpaid time off for two antenatal appointments.
• National Insurance payments for under 21s abolished
– Employers will no longer need to pay NI for employees who are
aged under 21. The employee will still pay NI contributions.
• Reservists’ exemption – Reservist employees will be exempt
from the two year qualifying period for bringing an unfair dismissal
claim, if it’s related to their service: timing to be confirmed.
• Young people – In England all must remain in education/training
until aged 18.
• Jury service – The upper age limit will increase from 70 to 75 in
England and Wales (there is no age limit in Scotland), launch date
to be announced.
A man in India has finally been fired after not turning up for work for
22 years! The engineer last showed up in December 1990, but the
company has been unable to fire him due to the country’s labour
laws. Compare this to employment legislation here and never
complain again! Employees have the right not to be unfairly
dismissed, but they will have had to have been employed for at least
two years’ continuous service. This doesn’t mean there is no risk to
the employer. A fair process should always be followed and
remember that an employee with less than two years’ service
(minus notice period)
can still take a claim
forward for
discrimination.
For all matters
hiring and firing
get in touch.
What a misfire!

2. Preventing People Problems www.hrdept.co.uk
What are your employees’ New Year resolutions? Knowing these – and
helping with them – could be a powerful management tool. Aside from
the rapport it builds, you may well find their interests are aligned with
the company’s. For instance, the old cliché: “I want to get more healthy!”
Achieving this could obviously lead to fewer sick days being taken and a
more energised and productive workforce. There are simple measures
you can take to facilitate this. How about stocking fruit-bowls? It discourages
less healthy snacking and brightens up the office. Subsidised gym membership is
another idea. Some businesses we know even bring in an in-office masseuse to ease tensions.
One New Year resolution especially popular this year is pledging to find a new job! In fact, more than one
in three people have this in their sights – nearly double the amount of people who aspired to do this the
year before, and three times as many as in January 2013 (Source: The Institute of Leadership and
Management). OK, you may be glad to wave some staff goodbye, but for others it could be a disaster.
A knowledge gap. Short-staff issues. An employee walking off to a competitor with your prized customer
list. How can you handle this proactively? The quoted survey cited “More opportunity for progression”,
“Better pay”, and “A more interesting job” as the top reasons. All things normally within your control.
So why not survey your own staff and find out what they want from their role before they start looking
elsewhere? It could be as simple as more recognition for a job well done, or perhaps more training and
development. There is real scope to use this to grow the company as well as improve staff satisfaction.
And failing that, make sure you have strong restrictive covenants in place! The HR Dept advice line can
now provide insurance cover for restrictive covenants, ensuring you can afford to take out injunctions
to protect your customer base. Call us for more information.
THE INDICATOR
Employment and litigation issues
STATUTORY PAY (next review April 2015) Maternity/Adoption pay – SMP/SAP is paid for
39 weeks. Pay rate for first 6 weeks of SMP: 90% of the employee’s average weekly earnings. SMP
remaining weeks/SAP: £138.18 or 90% of average weekly earnings, whichever is less.
Sick pay (SSP) – £87.55 per week provided employees meet criteria.
REDUNDANCY PAY(next review April 2015)
Pay rate – 0.5 week’s pay for each year of service for employees aged under 22 (1 week’s pay is
calculated at £464 or the weekly amount if it is less). 1 week’s pay for each year of service for
employees between the ages of 22 and 40. 1.5 week’s pay for each year of service for employees
aged 41 and older.
NATIONAL MINIMUM WAGE (next review October 2015) Hourly pay rate – £6.50 for
workers aged 21 and over, £5.13 for workers aged 18 to 20, and £3.79 for workers aged 16 to 17.
Apprentice minimum wage £2.73 per hour (apprentices under 19 or 19 and over who are in the
first year of apprenticeship).
Sackings, data disputes, snooping…
The murkier side of social media
has come to the fore in the last
month. Stockbroker Rayhan Qadar
made an ill-judged tweet
suggesting he had perpetrated a
hit-and-run. Cue online outrage,
police investigation, national news
coverage and instant dismissal
for poor conduct. Then a law firm
warned: who owns LinkedIn
contacts when an employee
leaves? Restrictive covenants
normally protect against ex-staff
soliciting clients. And most
sensitive data sits on company
infrastructure. But a LinkedIn
contact list resides on third
party servers. And LinkedIn can
automatically notify someone’s
contacts when they change jobs.
Solicitation by proxy? It’s a grey
area. Finally, for ‘Big Brother’
bosses, software is available to
track staff social media usage to
monitor who may imminently
hand in their notice. Useful?
Ethical? Whether you embrace
social media or not, it’s
important to have clear social
media policies and ensure other
legal documents are fit for
purpose in this digital age.
Employers can breathe a
little more easily on the
holiday-pay overtime issue.
The Employment Tribunal
ruling last November not
only left companies with a
future cost burden of having
to take non-guaranteed
overtime into consideration
for holiday-pay, but also left
the door open for claims for
past holiday leave. But the
government has acted to
limit these back-dated claims
to two years. This prompt
action will be greeted with
relief, although there is of
course still liability there.
For guidance on this issue,
just give us a call.
Holiday-pay
overtime:
Retrospective
claims limited
to two years
From the High Court Anti-social media
Amidst the Christmas rush an important ruling was made at the High
Court. A Judge rejected a judicial review brought by Unison who
wanted to have tribunal fees ruled unlawful. It was the second
time in 2014 that the trade union has failed in this objective and
it has promised to appeal. Employers will be relieved that, as
the law remains the same, there will be no short-term surge
in tribunal cases. However, the world of HR is fluid. And in this
an election year, both Labour and the Liberal Democrats have
indicated that they want to see the current fees go south. So
these could be back on the agenda in the second half of 2015.
If you are facing a tribunal make sure you get in touch with your
local HR Dept for assistance through the process.
Should you be
concerned by staff’s
New Year resolutions?