Welcome to Employment Edit, our regular update giving the pick of the key developments in employment law from the last couple of weeks:
- The right to request flexible working was extended, on 30 June 2014, to all employees with 26 weeks’ continuous service and the prescriptive procedure for dealing with requests replaced with a new duty to deal with requests in a reasonable manner. To coincide with this, Acas has published a new code of practice (PDF) and guide.
- The Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Bill 2014-15 has been published which includes proposals for changes to whistleblowing, zero hours contracts, public sector redundancy payments, an introduction of financial penalties for non-payment of tribunal awards and an increase in the maximum penalty for non-payment of the national minimum wage.
- Compulsory equal pay audits take a step closer following the publication of the draft Equality Act 2010 (Equal Pay Audits) Regulations 2014 which is due to 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.
If you would like more information, or specific advice, please contact Roger Bull.