What's Coming Up During 2007?
With a new year comes new employment legislation, and 2007 brings some key changes that will affect most employers. We will of course provide you with updates throughout the year, but here's a brief summary in advance so you know what to expect.
1st February 2007 - Employment Rights (Increase of Limits) Order 2006 comes into force
The Order increases the limits applying to certain awards of employment tribunals and other amounts payable under employment legislation. The limit on the amount of the compensatory award for unfair dismissal increases from £58,400 to £60,600, and the statutory maximum amount of 'a week's pay' for the purpose of calculating basic or additional awards of compensation for unfair dismissal or redundancy payments increases from £290 to £310.
1st April 2007 - Statutory Maternity, Paternity and Adoption Pay Increases
The standard rates of statutory maternity, paternity and adoption pay are increased to £112.75 per week.
1st April 2007 - Maternity Leave Increases (applicable to babies due on or after 1st April 2007)
All employees, regardless of service, will be entitled to both Ordinary Maternity Leave (OML) and Additional Maternity Leave (AML).
The paid period of Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) will increase to 39 weeks, and women may agree up to 10 days paid work within their maternity leave period to 'keep in touch' without losing entitlement to maternity pay.
The length of the period of notice an employee must give to change the date of their return to work increases from 28 days to 8 weeks.
6 April 2007 - Information and Consultation of Employees Regulations 2004 are extended (for Great Britain and Northern Ireland)
The Regulations, which implement the Information and Consultation Directive in Great Britain and Northern Ireland (2 separate Regulations), are extended to cover undertakings with 100 or more employees.
6 April 2007 - Occupational and Personal Pension Schemes (Consultation by Employers and Miscellaneous Amendment) Regulations 2006 are extended.
The Regulations, which introduce a statutory requirement upon employers to consult with prospective and active members of pension schemes and their representatives before making major or significant changes to future pension arrangements, are extended to cover undertakings with 100 or more employees.
6 April 2007 - Flexible Working (Eligibility, Complaints and Remedies) (Amendment) Regulations come into force
The Regulations amend the Flexible Working (Eligibility, Complaints and Remedies) Regulations 2002 to extend the right to request flexible working to carers of adults.
During 2007 (tbc) - Corporate Manslaughter Bill comes into force
New laws on corporate manslaughter are introduced. They will create a new offence of corporate manslaughter, which would allow organisations to be prosecuted for management failures that lead to the deaths of employees and others. The new offence would apply when an individual has been killed because the senior management of an organisation has grossly failed to take reasonable care for the safety of employees or others. It would be an offence committed by organisations rather than individuals and would therefore carry a penalty of an unlimited fine rather than a custodial sentence. The Bill can be viewed on the Parliament website.
1 July 2007 - Ban on smoking in the workplace comes into force
A ban on smoking in enclosed public places, including most workplaces, comes into force. The ban is set out as part of the Health Act. It is important to note that 'workplaces' as defined within the Act does include Company Vehicles in addition to premises.
24 Oct 2007 - Data Protection Act 1998 comes fully into force
Manual filing systems in existence before 24 October 1998 are now required to comply fully with the Data Protection Directive (95/46/EC).
As always, we would be happy to provide you with practical advice and guidance in all of the above areas. For further information telephone 01494 451681 and one of our team will be pleased to help.
January 2007
