Spring brings a raft of changes in employment law

Increased holiday entitlement, more parents allowed to request flexible working and a new approach to resolving workplace disputes – just some of the changes to employment law now coming into effect. Liam Kenealy looks at the changes and examines what they mean for employers and employees.

The Spring has brought a raft of changes in employment law. One of the more controversial is the Government decision to press ahead with extending the right to request flexible working to parents of children up to the age of 16.

Until now, the right has only applied to parents of children under six or who are disabled.

It is estimated that up to 4.5 million parents will benefit from the change which came into effect on 6th April. However, it should be remembered that although firms must give proper consideration to requests for flexible working, they do not have to grant those requests.

Many business groups wanted the introduction of the extended rights to be postponed because of the economic downturn but the Government has decided to press ahead as planned.

Employment Relations Minister, Pat McFadden, said: "We took a second look at all areas of pending legislation because of the downturn, and decided it was still right to proceed because we want to help families cope with their responsibilities."

There is further good news for employees because the statutory holiday entitlement increased on 1st April from 4.8 weeks to 5.6 weeks meaning that an employee who works a five-day week is now entitled to 28 days annual leave. The entitlement includes bank holidays so the change will make no difference to employers who already give four weeks annual leave plus bank holidays. Those who do not, however, will need to make adjustments.

Part-time workers have the same holiday entitlement on a pro rata basis – that is, 5.6 times their normal working week.

Many employers will be relieved to hear that the statutory dismissal and disciplinary procedures have now been repealed.

They have been replaced by a new framework based on the provisions of the Employment Act 2008. Employers should now follow the guidelines in the new ACAS Code of Practice on discipline and grievance which came into effect on 6th April.

One of the main aims of the changes is to provide both employers and employees with greater flexibility. The mandatory three step process of letter, meeting and then right of appeal no longer applies. Instead, the ACAS code sets out the principles that employers and employees should follow to achieve a reasonable standard of behaviour.

Under the new system, a dismissal will no longer be considered automatically unfair due to a breach of procedure.

Instead, a tribunal will consider whether a failure to follow the code was unreasonable taking all the circumstances into account, such as the size of the business. A tribunal will still be able to rule that a dismissal was unfair for procedural reasons but it will also be able to adjust the level of compensation if it considers that the procedural failings had no material impact on the outcome.

Tribunals will also have the power to adjust awards by 25% if either side has failed to act reasonably or failed to comply with the code of practice.

Tribunals will also be able to award compensation for financial loss in certain cases, for example, where an employee is making a claim in relation to deductions from wages or redundancy payments.

Whether the changes bring the expected benefits remains to be seen but in the short term there is a danger that they may cause some confusion. Employers may wish to revise their codes of practice and they should certainly seek legal advice before taking any action in relation to their employees, especially as the maximum awards that can be made by employment tribunals rose on 1st February in line with the increase in the retail price index.

The limit on the amount of compensatory award for unfair dismissal increased from £63,000 to £66,200. The maximum amount of a nominal week’s pay – the amount used for calculating various awards including redundancy payments – increased from £330 to £350. The limit on the amount of guaranteed payment to an employee in respect of any particular day rose from £20.40 to £21.50.

The increases are made under the Employment Rights (Increase of Limits) Order 2008 and are in line with the rise in the Retail Price Index between September 2007 and September 2008.

Liam is an employment solicitor at Andersons Solicitors. He can be contacted on 0115 947 0641 or by emailing lkenealy@andersonssolicitors.co.uk