Employment Briefing - March 2015

Published byMartin Stephen

30th March 2015

• Contact the Team
• National Minimum Wage
• Quick Reminders
• You can’t run and you can’t hide
• Workplace Pensions Auto Enrolment
• Stress in the Workplace

Welcome to March’s Employment Briefing.

Stress in the workplace has been in the news recently and we take a brief overview of what employers can do to help employees cope in the workplace.

We also highlight the changes to the National Minimum Wage and Workplace Auto Pension Enrolment. With the start of the new tax year and new legislation coming into force our Quick Reminders will help you plan.

Elsewhere we've rounded up the other significant employment cases and summarised them for you. This month we cover reasonable adjustments for returns to work and victimisation claims.

As ever, if you have any questions or points for discussion, please get in touch.

Contact the Team

If you have an employment issue, please contact the team:

Martin Stephen: mss@wjm.co.uk 0141 248 3434
Liam Entwistle: lae@wjm.co.uk 0141 248 3434
Andrew Wilson: ajpw@wjm.co.uk 0131 524 1500

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National Minimum Wage

Vince Cable announced on 17 March that the national minimum wage (NMW) would increase from 1 October 2015 as follows:

• the rate for adults will increase to £6.70 per hour
• the rate for 18 to 20 year olds will £5.30 per hour
• the rate for 16 to 17 year olds will increase £3.87 per hour
• the apprentice rate will increase to £3.30 per hour
• the accommodation offset will increase to £5.35

The Low pay commission had recommended that the apprentice rate increase to £2.80 but the Government rejected that recommendation and proposed an increase of 57p an hour to £3.30 which is the largest ever increase in the national minimum wage for apprentices. It reduces the difference in age rates between 16 and 17 year olds.

What impact will this have on your workplace? Find out the demographic of your employees and ensure that their salary is at a level that won’t translate as less than the hourly rate listed above. To work out an hourly rate you take their annual salary divide it by 52 (weeks in the year) and divide again by the number of hours an employee is contracted to work in a week. For example somebody whose salary is £13,000 per annum works 35 hours each week, their hourly rate would be £7.14.

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Quick Reminders

5th April 2015 – Shared Parental Leave comes into force. Parents can now share the care of their child born or adopted after 5th April 2015.

6th April 2015 – Compensation Limits in certain Employment Tribunal Awards increase. The cap for ordinary unfair dismissal rises to £78,335 and the maximum weekly pay used for calculating statutory redundancy payments and basic awards in unfair dismissal claims will increase to £475.00.

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You can’t run and you can’t hide

There’s no getting away from it - there’s a General Election coming up. While many of us would quite like to run away and hide until it’s all over, a new government could have profound impacts on employment law.

The General Election is forecast to be the closest in decades and another coalition government is expected. Who forms the coalition could determine the future outlook of employment law and its effects on business. The unanswered question of the moment is “Will employees or employers be given more rights?” and that depends on the political shade of those elected.

The party manifestos can give clues but, as every party knows, once you are in power and the reality of give and take in a coalition kicks in, manifesto promises can go out of the window. We are, as the saying goes, “living in interesting times”.

We’ll be keeping a close eye on the political process and will keep you informed.

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Workplace Pensions Auto Enrolment

For smaller employers, the dates for pension auto enrolment are creeping ever nearer.

The Pensions Regulator is sending out letters requiring employers to nominate a contact to whom information, reminders and other correspondence will be sent. You must submit the required data on time and in the format required and take a note of your Staging Date – this is the date when you have to start enrolling your employees in a Pension Scheme.

If you don’t have a pension scheme in your workplace the WJM Wealth Planning can guide you through the steps needed.

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Stress in the Workplace

Zayn Malik left the band One Direction last week citing stress as the reason for making his decision. The 22 year old had been due to appear with the other band members on their world tour this week but instead flew home to London. Also this week, information the BBC obtained this week through a Freedom of Information request, highlighted the dramatic rise of stress related illness in NHS staff.

As an employer what can you do in situations when an employee is signed off work by their GP due to stress? What can you do to reduce the risk of stress related illness in your workforce?

The Health and Safety Executive have defined stress as “the reaction people have to excessive pressures or other types of demand placed on them”. As an employer you have a duty of care to ensure your employees are not made ill by the work you are asking them to undertake, not only physical illness but mental illness too.

As well as their duty of care, employers also have a contractual duty to act fairly towards their employees. An employee who suffers from stress due to the unreasonable behaviour of their employer may be entitled to resign and bring a claim of constructive dismissal (a type of unfair dismissal where an employee is not sacked, but resigns because of the employer’s actions).When an employee is absent from work due to work related stress, aim to understand what has made that pressure excessive for them and consider reasonable adjustments to mitigate that pressure. Prevention however, is often better than cure.

Court and employment tribunal decisions have focused on whether harm to an employee due to stress was predictable. If it is, then the employer should take remedial steps to reduce the risk.

Employers should consider putting in place the following:

• carrying out regular risk assessments
• having regular appraisal meetings where the employee has the opportunity to discuss workload, control of workload and changes to their work with their manager
• implementing a stress and well- being policy which will help guide managers what to do in situations when they think one of their employees may be suffering from stress as well as highlighting to employees where they can get assistance from
• training managers in people management skills will help them have appropriate conversations with their employees

Employers could also consider

• training in relaxation techniques
• promoting healthy behaviour and exercise
• flexible working options and improved work-life balance
• personal counselling schemes

Everyone is different and work which is stressful for some is thrived on by others. Balancing work to ensure that the needs of the business are met without over-stressing employees is critical to the health and wellbeing of staff.

If you have, or suspect you have, employees who are not coping, we can help you put procedures and policies in place to help manage the situation. Contact a team member through employment@wjm.co.uk

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