Welcome to Employment Edit, our pick of the key employment law developments from the last couple of weeks:
- Gender pay – The government has issued a Consultation Paper, Closing the Gender Pay Gap, asking for views on how to implement its commitment to require employers with 250+ employees to publish gender pay information. We intend to submit a response to this consultation and please let us know if you would like to share your views with us before we do so. The consultation closes on 6 September 2015.
- Holiday pay – The EAT has held that an employee absent from work on long-term sick leave, who does not choose to take annual leave, can carry forward the four weeks’ leave required under the EU Working Time Directive, but must take it within 18 months of the end of the leave year in which it accrued. Please see our briefing on accrual of holiday during long-term sickness for more details (Plumb v Duncan Print Group Ltd).
- Industrial action – The government has published the Trade Union Bill, which would impose a minimum 50% turnout in ballots for industrial action and a minimum backing of 40% of those eligible to vote for certain parts of the public sector.
- Budget 2015 – The government has announced it will consult on simplifying the tax and NICs treatment of termination payments, consider possible reforms to the existing employment intermediaries legislation (‘IR35’) and actively monitor the growth of salary sacrifice schemes.
- National Living Wage – From April 2016, a new compulsory National Living Wage (NLW) of £7.20 per hour will be introduced for workers aged 25 and above. This will be achieved by an initial 50p premium on top of the National Minimum Wage (NMW) and the NMW will remain for those aged under 25.
If you would like more information, or specific advice, please contact Roger Bull or get in touch with your usual Burges Salmon contact.