Employment Law – what’s new in 2020

• Be issued to all workers – currently, only employees are entitled to written statements;
• Be issued on or before the first day of employment – currently, employers have two months from the start of employment to issue the statement;
• Be issued to all employees/workers regardless of how long their employment will last – currently, those working for less than one month are not entitled to written statements; and
• Include the following details – in addition to the details already required:
• Hours of work – including the days of the week the employee/worker is required to work, whether or not such hours or days may be variable and how that variation is to be determined;
• Any paid leave – other than annual leave or sick leave, such as maternity, paternity or adoption leave;
• Any other benefits not covered elsewhere in the written statement – this includes both contractual and non-contractual benefits;
• Any probationary period – including conditions applicable to the period and its duration; and
• Any training entitlement provided by the employer – to include any part of that training entitlement which is compulsory and details of any other compulsory training which the employer will not pay for.

Calculating holiday pay

The method for calculating holiday pay for zero hours and other variable hours workers will change from 6 April 2020. The pay reference period for calculating a ‘normal’ weeks’ pay, will be extended from 12 to 52 weeks, meaning employers will need to be keep more detailed records of working patterns.

Agency Workers

Agency workers will benefit from improved rights in 2020 as Swedish derogation contracts are set to become unlawful from 6 April, thereby ensuring employers can no longer avoid providing staff equal pay after 12 consecutive weeks on assignment.

Statutory pay rates

The statutory rates for minimum wage are to increase from April 2020 whilst additional rates for leave, such as maternity, paternity and sick leave are also to increase again in the Spring of 2020. At the same time the new right to parental bereavement leave is expected to become effective, giving qualifying parents the right to two weeks of paid time off work following the loss of a child under the age of 18. A new Policy on this issue can be provided by Specialist HR Solutions Ltd on request.

CEO pay ratio reporting

This will become effective as of 1 January 2020, meaning certain organisations will need to compare their CEO’s most recent remuneration against that of their full time-employees. This information will need to be included in any future director’s remuneration reports.