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Employment Law Changes – The Good Work Plan

This article was published on April 9th, 2020

In 2017, an independent review was carried out in relation to working practices which was formally known as the ‘Taylor Review’. The result was that the Review identified 53 recommendations for change, most of which were accepted in principle. What followed was the Government’s Good Work Plan which has brought about various employment law changes.

Some changes were introduced last year, such as the right to receive a payslip for all workers not just employees. Further employment law changes came into effect on 6th April 2020 as follows:

The Right to Written Particulars of Employment

Prior to 6th April, employers had 8 weeks to provide these Particulars to employees, which cover key terms including hours of work, salary and holiday entitlement, to name a few. However, the change now requires the Particulars to be given to all workers from day one of employment with additional information such as details of benefits, mandatory training and the probationary period details. To comply with this, it would be sensible to ensure all workers now receive a contract on day one of joining your business if not before.

Holiday Pay Calculations

Where you have a worker who works irregular working hours, holiday pay was previously calculated based on the working hours over the previous 12 weeks. This has now been extended to 52 weeks with a view to avoiding a worker being financially worse off where their working hours may fluctuate between seasons.

Agency Workers

Prior to 6th April, agency workers were entitled to receive the same pay as permanent employees after 12 weeks unless a particular distinction applied placing them under a different ‘model’ (outside the scope of this News Alert). However the distinction now no longer applies and the same amount of pay is a right for all agency workers after 12 weeks. Agency workers are also entitled to receive a Key Facts document outlining their basic contractual arrangements.

There are additional changes which do not yet have any definite date to come into effect and we will update on these matters at the appropriate times. There are also areas which are subject to ongoing consultation which might result in changes to employment law and again we will provide further updates as necessary.

If you would like to review the complete Good Work Plan you can access it here.

If you have any queries please do not hesitate to email us at [email protected]

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