News roundup: Law changes and National Sickie Day!
3 February 2012
With a raft of employment law changes introduced earlier in the week, employers need to grasp new award limits and amounts payable. The new limits and payout increases came into force on 1 February, so the changes are now live and will start to impact businesses.
The five changes employers need to know are:
- Statutory redundancy payment increases
- Unfair dismissal basic award increases
- Unfair dismissal compensatory award increases
- A "week's pay" increases for other compensation
- Guarantee payment increases
You can read an excellent summary of the changes on the Personnel Today website, or feel free to contact our Ochre employment law experts if you would like to discuss further.
Earlier this week we also reported that statutory Sick Pay will increase from £81.60 to £85.85 per week. The change will take effect from 9 April 2012. The changes will take effect from 9 April 2012. You can read the full Ochre news item here.
And something that caught our eye this week, as attention begins to turn to the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee year, is the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development’s report on how work in Britain has changed since 1952. The report’s findings include: “There are at present some 29 million people in employment in the UK, 6 million more than in the 1950s, but there has been no increase in the total number of hours worked each week. The UK has undergone a process of informal 'work-sharing' since the 1950s…. [Plus] in the 1950s only 4% of people worked part time; 60 years later the proportion is 1 in 4 (6.5 million employees).”
But despite changes in employment over the years, the one thing that seems to remain constant in modern Britain is “National Sickie Day”, which will take place this Monday, 6 February. Traditionally more people will call in sick on Monday than any other day throughout the year. Are you prepared?
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