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HR & EMPLOYMENT LAW Jackie Le Poidevin, Editor-in-Chief, HR Adviser |
King’s Speech: What Will it Mean for Employers?
In the King’s Speech on Wednesday, King Charles announced that the new Government is ‘committed to making work pay’ and will ‘introduce a new deal for working people to ban exploitative practices and enhance employment rights’. Although there were no further details in the speech itself, the Government has pledged in the accompanying briefing notes to introduce an Employment Rights Bill ‘within the first 100 days’, which will represent ‘the biggest upgrade to rights at work for a generation’. I look at what the Bill is expected to contain and what’s likely to happen next.
What Will be in the Bill?
The briefing notes state that the Bill will:
- Ban ‘exploitative’ zero-hour contracts, giving workers the right to have a contract that reflects the number of hours they regularly work, to have reasonable notice of any shift changes and to have compensation for any cancelled or curtailed shifts.
- End ‘fire and rehire’ and replace the new Code of Practice.
- Make unfair dismissal protection and ‘parental leave’ Day 1 rights.
- Remove the lower earnings limit and waiting period on statutory sick pay (SSP).
- Make flexible working the ‘default’ from Day 1 in the job.
- Make it unlawful to dismiss a woman who has had a baby for 6 months after her return to work, except in specific circumstances.
- Establish a single enforcement body called the Fair Work Agency.
- Update trade union legislation, including reversing the previous Government’s approach to minimum service levels.
- Simplify the process of statutory recognition and improve the right to access a union in the workplace.
There will also be a separate draft Equality (Race and Disability) Bill aimed at:
- Extending the right to equal pay to ethnic minorities and disabled people.
- Introducing mandatory ethnicity and disability pay reporting for large employers.
This is a complex proposal and no timescale has been given for this Bill. The fact that it’s described as a ‘draft’ also suggests a slower process.
The Government also proposes to:
- Deliver a genuine living wage that accounts for the cost of living and remove the age bands to ensure every adult worker benefits. This doesn’t require primary legislation, so is likely to be the first proposal to be implemented (perhaps at least in part next April when the national minimum wage [NMW] rate is due to be updated anyway).
- Reform the apprenticeship levy.
There’s no mention of the manifesto proposal of creating a single ‘worker’ status. This is likely to be the trickiest pledge to implement and may have been shelved for the moment. The briefing notes are also silent on the right to switch off and preventing sexual harassment by third parties.
What Happens Now?
To meet its 100-day pledge, the Government will have to launch its Employment Rights Bill by 12 October (or perhaps a little later if it starts counting from the King’s Speech rather than the first day after the election). This doesn’t mean the law will actually change at this point. In its ‘Plan to Make Work Pay’, published before the General Election, the Government made clear:
- It will consult fully with businesses, workers and the public on its planned legislation.
- The Bill will need to pass through both Houses of Parliament before it can become law.
- Much of the detail will need to be set out in additional regulations, which will require input from experts and further consultation.
To take one example, if we look back to Labour’s last landslide General Election victory on 1 May 1997, the introduction of the NMW was one of Tony Blair’s flagship policies. However, it took more than a year for the National Minimum Wage Act 1998 to receive Royal Assent and nearly 2 years for the implementing regulations to be passed and for the NMW to come into effect (on 1 April 1999).
Change therefore isn’t imminent but the current Government has made clear it wants to proceed as quickly as it can.
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HEALTH & SAFETY Carolyn Dukes, Editor-in-Chief, Risk Assessment & Compliance |
Work at Height: New Report Shines Light on Telescopic Ladder Risks
The Ladder Association (LA) has published a report on the buying behaviours and accident experiences of telescopic ladder users. Their survey looks at where telescopic ladders are purchased and the selection criteria applied by users. It also highlights how buying behaviours can increase the risk of selecting sub-standard equipment and accident trends. Based on the findings of the survey, we give you 11 key risk controls to ensure you get the right telescopic ladder for your work and the right training for your workers.
Telescopic leaning ladders have become increasingly popular in both work and domestic environments for work at height. They are lightweight, compact and easily transportable.
However, a LA surveillance survey in 2022 found that 80% of the telescopic ladders they tested did not meet the minimum safety requirements designed to keep users safe. Use our guide below to help you identify the correct ladder you require, what to do when you receive the purchased ladder, and the pre-use checks users should make.
11 Key Risk Controls for Telescopic Ladder Purchase and Use
Before buying a telescopic ladder, you should apply the following 11 vital risk controls recommended by the LA:
- Take time to research before you buy.
- Check the product reviews.
- Don’t make decisions based solely on price.
- Don’t assume product safety and compliance checks have been carried out by online platforms before ladders are placed online for sale. Be aware that online platforms take little or no responsibility for the quality or safety of the products sold on their platforms.
- Don’t assume physical stores sell only safe products.
- Avoid ladders that are CE or UKCA marked! This may seem counterintuitive but ladders cannot be CE or UKCA marked, so avoid any that bear those markings.
When you receive your ladder:
- Check the ladder, including the instruction manual (every ladder should come with one) and the labelling on the ladder.
- If you think the ladder is unsafe, dangerous or not made to standard, don’t use it! You can report it to your local Trading Standards team or the LA.
Before using or allowing use of the ladder for work purposes, you must ensure:
- The ladder is suitable work at height equipment for the task and the environment.
- The risks of the work at height have been assessed and there are suitable control measures in place.
- The person using the ladder is competent to do so, has been trained in its safe use and is aware of the control measures they must follow to protect themselves and others from harm.
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PAYROLL Sarah Bradford, Editor-in-Chief, Pay & Benefits Adviser |
New Rules on Reporting Salary Advances to HMRC
Following a consultation, HMRC changed the rules for reporting salary advances to HMRC with effect from 6 April 2024. The July issue of HMRC’s Employer Bulletin explains the procedures that you now need to follow if you make a salary advance to an employee.
For the purpose of the new reporting rules, the term ‘salary advance’ refers to arrangements between an employer and an employee where the employee is able to access some of their earned salary before their normal pay day. An employer make also use a Salary Advance Scheme whereby arrangements are made with a third party which enable employees to access some of their earned salary early.
Only One RTI Report Required
Under the rules that applied prior to 6 April 2024, where you made a salary advance to an employee you needed to report the advance to HMRC under Real Time Information (RTI) on a Full Payment Submission (FPS) at or before the time that you made the advance. A further report was needed as normal when the employee was paid the remainder of their salary on their normal pay day.
The new rules reduce the reporting burden for employers. As long as certain conditions are met, the salary advance does not need to be reported to HMRC at the time that it is made. Instead, the employer must now only make one RTI report per period at or before the time at which the employee is paid the balance of their salary for the period on their usual pay day.
Conditions
This approach can only be used if the following conditions are met:
- The employee’s salary is ordinarily paid at regular intervals of between 1 week and 1 month and the employer pays part of that salary in advance.
- The salary advance reasonably represents the work undertaken or obligations performed by the employee under their contract with the employer and no other relevant payment has been made for that work.
- The employer made a regular relevant payment (e.g. their regular salary) to the employee at the regular payday after the advance payment is made and the regular payment is reduced by the amount of the salary advance.
Where the salary advance is made through a scheme operated by a third party acting on the employer’s behalf, the employer remains responsible for reporting the payments to HMRC.
Example
An employee is paid a salary of £3,000 (gross) per month on the last Friday of each month.
The employer made a salary advance of £500 to the employee on 12 July 2024. The employee is paid the remaining £2,500 of his salary on his usual pay day of Friday 26 July 2024.
As the employee is paid monthly and the salary advance is more than the employee’s pro rata salary for the month at the date on which it is made, the employer only needs to make one RTI return, advising HMRC of the total payment and total deductions for July when the balance of the salary is paid on 26 July. There is no need to report the salary advance to HMRC separately on 12 July.