Welcome to Employment Edit, our regular update giving the pick of the key developments in employment law from the last couple of weeks:
- On 1 October 2014 a new right comes into force which will allow employees and agency workers to take unpaid time off to accompany a pregnant woman, with whom they are in a “qualifying relationship”, to up to two antenatal appointments, for a maximum of six and a half hours each.
- The Equality Act 2010 (Equal Pay Audits) Regulations 2014 come into force on 1 October 2014 and will oblige employment tribunals, in certain circumstances, to order employers that are in breach of equal pay law to conduct equal pay audits.
- On 1 October 2014 the statutory qualifying period for unfair dismissal is being removed where the dismissal is connected with the employee's membership of the Reserve Forces and provision is being made for payments to small and medium-sized employers of reservists who are called out for service.
- The government has published an employer’s technical guide to shared parental leave and pay. This adds to the information in the main employer guide on shared parental leave and pay to assist employers implementing policies on the new shared parental leave scheme.
- The EAT has held that where an employer reduces an employee's wages to recover an overpayment made in a previous pay period, it constitutes a deduction for the purposes of S.8 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 and, therefore, the employer must identify the amount and purpose of the deduction in the employee's payslip. Ridge v Her Majesty's Land Registry
If you would like more information, or specific advice, please contact Roger Bull or get in contact with your usual Burges Salmon representative.