1. Increases in National Living Wage, National Minimum Wage as well as SSP, SMP etc and a week’s pay for redundancy pay and other compensation limits all take effect this month.

The headline key figures are:-

  • new rate for Statutory Sick Pay £95.85 per week;
  • new maximum statutory redundancy payment £16,140, with a week’s pay increasing from £525 to £538;
  • maximum compensatory award for unfair dismissal purposes, the lower of 52 weeks gross pay or £88,519;
  • National Living Wage rises to £8.72;
  • National Minimum Wage (adult rate) rises to £8.20.

2. Some of the further changes under the Good Work Plan come into effect this month. The key changes are as follows:-

– all employees are now entitled to a Section 1 Statement of Particulars (often coming in the form of a Contract of Employment) from day one when they are engaged on or after 6th April 2020. The right to a Statement of Particulars, and from day 1, also now extends to Workers for the first time;

– additional mandatory information is required for a new s1. Statement of Particulars including:

  • details of any probationary period;
  • entitlement to any paid leave (over and above annual leave, for example, maternity leave etc);
  • details of training provided and funding arrangements for this;
  • full details of the hours and days of the week an individual is required to work and how these may be varied;
  • details of any other benefits provided.

3. Parental bereavement leave and pay. Just about the first piece of legislation passed by Mr Johnson’s new Government affording the right to two weeks’ statutory leave to employed parents who suffer the loss of a child under the age of 18, or a stillbirth from 24 weeks of pregnancy.

4. Holiday pay entitlement – the pay reference period for those with variable earnings is extended from 12 to 52 weeks. These accompany changes anyway to the orthodox method of calculating pay on a 12.07% basis which is now no longer appropriate in the majority of cases and instead holiday should be paid on the basis of average pay based upon the hours an individual has actually worked.  These are fairly complicated calculations and fortunately the Government has issued recent up to date guidance which can be found on the link below.

Government Guidance on Calculating Holiday Pay

5. Off payroll working rules. Fortunately the threatened introduction of changes akin to those already seen in the public sector, for the private sector, have now been postponed due to the Covid-19 situation and are likely to come into being in April 2021 instead. This gives much more time to review arrangements with  individuals who may fall into this category.

For more help or advice with any of these issues please contact any member of the Employment Team.