Extension of Employment Rights of Workers with a Physical or Mental Condition
Employees whose mental or physical condition varies in significance over time or with treatment could now be covered by the Disability Discrimination Act. The scope of the term “disability” has been extended to cover conditions that are managed but that would be likely to become substantial in the future if measures to control them were not taken or if their severity fluctuated in severity over time. Those suffering from such conditions should now, according to the Equality and Human Rights Commission, be entitled to the same legal protection as disabled people with more stable conditions.
The Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) defines a disability as a physical or mental impairment that has a substantial and long-term adverse impact on a person's day-to-day activities. Impairments that do not have this kind of impact due to corrective measures can still be covered if the adverse effects on daily living are "likely" to occur, for example, if treatment stops.
The extension in coverage comes from the Lords ruling that "likely" in the context of the DDA does not mean that the impairment would be more likely than not to recur without management, but that it "could well happen".
We’ll be discussing Disability Discrimination and in particular what the expectations are of an employer with a disabled employee in a upcoming Newsletter.
Payroll Reminders
Now that all tax year submission deadlines have passed there is one more part to complete.
Below are the important dates that you will need to work to in order to keep the HM Revenue happy and to avoid any fines.
19/10/2009 – Deadline for receipt of tax and Class 1B NICs postal payments under a PAYE Settlement Agreement
If you have a PAYE Settlement Agreement with HMRC this is the final deadline for receipt of tax and Class 1B NICs due for the tax year ending 5th April 2009 if you pay by post. If the payment is late you may have to pay interest.
22/10/2009 – Deadline for receipt of electronic payments of tax and Class 1B NICs under a PAYE Settlement Agreement
If you have a PAYE Settlement Agreement and pay using an approved method of electronic communication this is the final deadline for payments of tax and Class 1B NICs due for the tax year ending 5th April 2009 to clear in HMRC’s bank account. If the payment is late you may have to pay interest.
National Minimum Wage Increase
From 1st October 2009 the National Minimum Wage will be increased from £5.73 to £5.80 per hour for employees aged 22 and over.
The rate for 18 to 21-year-olds will also increase to £4.83 from £4.77.
Minimum wage for 16 to 17-year-olds will increase by 4p to £3.57 an hour.
Following the recommendations from the Low Pay Commission (LPC), the adult minimum wage rate is set to include 21-year-olds from October 2010.
Vetting & Barring Scheme
You’ve seen the headlines – here are the facts.
New measures will be introduced from October 12th 2009 which will prevent unsuitable people from undertaking paid or voluntary work with children or vulnerable adults. A public body called the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) has been set up to implement the scheme. From July 2010 all new employees, those moving jobs and volunteers who want to work with children or vulnerable adults can register with the ISA. From November 2010 all such people must be ISA-registered and cannot be legally employed until they do so.
Employers will have to check that a potential employee wishing to work in regulated activity with children or vulnerable adults are ISA registered – this can be done online and is free. It is the responsibility of the person wishing to work with children or vulnerable adults who will be responsible for their own ISA registration. Registration costs £64 for prospective employees and is free for unpaid volunteers.
This Vetting & Barring Scheme does not replace the Criminal Record Bureau Disclosure process , which still needs to be carried out as before, when required – and HR Advantage is still here to help facilitate this or other pre-employment security checks.
For more information about the Vetting & Barring Scheme please visit
www.isa-gov.org.uk or call 0300 123 1111. For queries relating to any other pre-employment security checks please contact your HR Advantage consultant who would be happy to advise on and facilitate any such tests.
Selection Pools and Redundancy
Phew! A recent tribunal decision which is helpful for employers.
A recent Employment Appeal Tribunal has held that provided an employer's choice of who to include in a redundancy selection pool is based on genuine, sound business reasons then the employer should be afforded a good deal of flexibility in the determining the pool of selection for redundancy.
Sounds common sense, but employment tribunals haven’t always been as logical. Don’t forget to give us a call if you have any issues about re-organisation or redundancy that might be concerning you.
Illness during annual leave
On the other hand, the European Court of Justice has just ruled that if an employee is sick and cannot take their holiday they must be given an opportunity to re-book that holiday, even if it means carrying it over into the next holiday year.
This means that employers should be clear about how they will respond to an employee who is or becomes sick when they were otherwise going to be on holiday and in particular the evidence they will need to support an employee’s claim they were sick on holiday.
We’ll be providing handbook and policy updates direct to clients. If you would like us to look at your current policy in the meantime, or have any immediate questions, please do give us a call.
