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HR & EMPLOYMENT LAW Jackie Le Poidevin, Editor-in-Chief, HR Adviser |
Discover the Latest Amendments to the Employment Rights Bill
Earlier this week, the Government announced amendments to the Employment Rights Bill (ERB) following a series of consultations with businesses and trade unions. The Bill is expected to pass into law this summer. However, regulations will then be needed to set out the details of how the new rights will work, so we’re not expecting any changes to take effect until next year. We outline the 5 amendments you need to be aware of.
- Bereavement Leave for Miscarriage
This addition to the ERB hadn’t been confirmed by the Government at the time of writing. However, a report by the cross-party Women and Equality Committee in January proposed amending the Bill to extend entitlement to parental bereavement leave to employees who suffer pregnancy loss before 24 weeks.
According to The Guardian, the Government has decided to accept this proposal. This would mean mothers and their partners would gain the right to 2 weeks’ bereavement leave (paid if they meet certain eligibility criteria) following a miscarriage. Currently, parents only have the right to bereavement leave if they lose a child or suffer a stillbirth after 24 weeks of pregnancy.
About 250,000 expectant mothers suffer a miscarriage every year in the UK, so this could be a significant new right.
- Sick Pay for Low Earners
We already knew the Government would be giving workers who earn less than the lower earnings limit (currently £123 a week) the right to claim statutory sick pay (SSP). It has now confirmed that workers who are off sick will receive either SSP (currently £116.75 a week) or 80% of their normal pay, whichever is lower. So the lowest earners will receive SSP for the first time, but at a reduced rate. However, as already set out in the ERB, all workers will be entitled to SSP from the first day of illness – not the fourth day as is currently the case.
- Zero-hours Rules to Apply to Agency Workers
The Government intends to extend the provisions in the ERB on low- and zero-hours workers to agency staff. So agency workers would obtain the right to:
- Be offered guaranteed hours reflecting the hours they regularly work.
- Receive ‘reasonable’ notice of any shift changes.
- Receive a payment for any cancelled or curtailed shifts.
- Higher Penalties for Collective Consultation Breaches
If you breach the collective consultation rules during a redundancy or ‘fire and rehire’ exercise, you can currently be ordered to pay an award of up to 90 days’ pay per affected employee. The Government has now confirmed it plans to increase the maximum award to 180 days’ pay.
However, it has decided against its alternative proposal of unlimited awards. It has also shelved the idea of tribunals being able to reinstate dismissed employees while their claims for collective consultation failures are heard.
- Tighter Regulation of Umbrella Companies
The Government plans to ensure that workers employed by an umbrella company can access the same rights and protections as workers taken on directly by a recruitment agency. Non-compliant umbrella companies would face enforcement action.
What You Can Do Now
Implementation of the ERB is still some time off. However, there’s no sign of the Government making significant concessions to businesses following the consultations held so far. In fact, the list of new obligations is growing. Although we don’t have all the details yet and there may be further amendments, the ERB – and particularly the Day 1 right to claim unfair dismissal – is going to lead to extra costs and red tape for your business and it’s important to start thinking how you’re going to manage these.
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HEALTH & SAFETY Emma Lampka, Editorial Board Member, Health & Safety Adviser and Risk Assessment & Compliance |
£100K Fine Highlights Importance of these 6 Risk Assessment Steps
Failing to conduct a proper risk assessment can lead to serious safety violations, hefty fines, and preventable injuries – just ask Sundorne Products, a waste and recycling company, which was fined £100,000 for breaching health and safety law. The good news? A robust risk assessment process can help businesses avoid enforcement action and protect workers. We outline 6 essential steps to ensure your risk assessments are thorough, compliant and effective in reducing workplace hazards.
The Case
Sundorne Products (Llanidloes) Limited were fined £100,000 and ordered to pay costs of £10,077 for a number of safety breaches of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. A major finding was that the risk associated with the use of potentially dangerous compactors had not been adequately assessed, inadequate staff training and no safe system of work.
As part of a routine HSE inspection, the inspector identified a risk of serious injury to both workers and members of the public. Further enforcement action was taken to secure improvements in the management arrangements and improved control measures, which could have been avoided had the company conducted a suitable and sufficient risk assessment.
6 Steps to Robust Risk Assessment
Here are some tips to develop a suitable and sufficient risk assessment which will help you prevent this type of enforcement action. A suitable and sufficient risk assessment should:
- Cover all significant hazards and risks: by methodically looking around your workplace you’ll be able to identify the hazards and assess their potential risks, both high to low risk.
- Consider the likelihood and severity of harm: during your workplace inspection you can talk to your employees and establish how often they come into contact with the hazard. This will help you to determine the likelihood of harm and then establish the severity, for example, an unguarded machine that’s used many times a day poses a high likelihood of harm occurring. Machinery is inherently dangerous due to moving parts that could cause either minor injuries such as cuts and lacerations, through to major injuries such as amputations. Based on your investigation and findings, you’ll understand what potential harm could come to someone using this unguarded machine and, therefore, apply a level of severity.
- Take into account existing measures to reduce risk: what controls do you already have in place? Using the example of the unguarded machine, perhaps you have push sticks or jigs in place to prevent workers coming into contact with the moving parts. Perhaps you’ve trained your employees in the use of the machine to ensure it is used for its intended purpose and that employees are aware of the hazards and risks and what they should do to keep themselves, and others, safe.
- Risk assessments should be conducted by trained persons: providing training for risk assessors is vital because they’ll need additional knowledge of the process, will be able to understand what constitutes a suitable and sufficient risk assessment and are able to competently review the likelihood and severity of a hazard.
- Involve the people carrying out the task being assessed: as a trained risk assessor, you may understand the process of conducting a risk assessment but may not be familiar with the actual task you’re assessing. Therefore, it’s vital to talk to those people doing the task to understand how it works, what’s involved and what hazards may exist. This also increases worker engagement to determine workable and effective control measures.
- Be documented when five or more people are employed: the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 requires your risk assessment to be documented if you employ five or more employees. However, even if you employ fewer than five workers, it’s good practice to document your risk assessment. By doing so, you can share the risk assessment with them, use it to refer to if an accident occurs and it also helps you defend your management activities if a claim is brought against your organisation.
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PAYROLL Sarah Bradford, Editor-in-Chief, Pay & Benefits Adviser |
Register Before 5 April to Payroll New Benefits in 2025/26
From 6 April 2026, payrolling will become mandatory. Employers who have yet to make the switch may wish to start payrolling some benefits from 2025/26 rather than waiting until next year. However, an employer can only start payrolling benefits from the beginning of a tax year – and only if the benefits have been registered for payrolling before the start of that tax year. It is not possible to switch to payrolling in-year.
Time is running short to register new benefits and expenses so that they can be taxed through the payroll from 6 April 2025. Where a benefit is already within payrolling, it does not have to be re-registered.
However, if an employer does not wish to payroll benefits in 2025/26 that were payrolled in 2024/25, they must cancel the registration of those benefits before 6 April 2025 (although, if they continue to provide those benefits, they will need to bring them back within payrolling from April 2026)
Which Benefits Can be Payrolled?
Currently, all benefits with the exception of employer-provided living accommodation and cheap employment-related loans can be payrolled. From April 2026, these benefits will remain outside mandatory payrolling; however, from that date employers will be able to opt to payroll them voluntarily.
Registering for Payrolling
Employers can use the dedicated online service to register benefits for payrolling (see: tinyurl.com/yueuw975). They will need a Government Gateway ID and password and must also be registered for PAYE Online for Employers.
Starting Payrolling
Under payrolling, the tax due on the payrolled benefit is calculated for each pay period and deducted from the employee’s cash pay for that period along with the PAYE due on their cash pay. For this to happen, employers must have payroll software that can calculate the tax due on the employee’s payrolled benefits for each pay period.
Employers who need to upgrade their software to facilitate this will need to ensure that the upgraded software is in place before the employee is paid for the first time in 2025/26. The software must also have been updated for the 2025/26 tax year. However, as most benefits in kind are within the charge to Class 1A National Insurance, there is no Class 1 National Insurance to account for on the payrolled benefit.
The cash equivalent of the benefit (or, where the benefit is provided under an optional remuneration arrangement, such as a salary sacrifice scheme, the amount determined under the alternative valuation rules) is treated like cash paid to the employee in instalments throughout the tax year on the employee’s usual pay day.
Where a benefit has been payrolled, the employer does not need to report the benefit to HMRC after the end of the tax year on the employee’s P11D. However, they will still need to complete a P11D(b) to notify HMRC of their Class 1A National Insurance liability. When working out their Class 1A bill on benefits and expenses, it is important to include both payrolled benefits and those reported to HMRC on the employees’ P11Ds.
Telling Employees
Employers must tell employees when they start to payroll benefits and what it will mean for them. They must also provide employees with details of their payrolled benefits for the tax year before 1 June after the end of the tax year.
Looking Ahead
Payrolling will become mandatory for all benefits with the exception of employer-provided living accommodation and cheap employment-related loans from 6 April 2026. Where employers do not opt to voluntary payroll these benefits, they will still be able to report them to HMRC on the P11D. However, for 2026/27 onwards, it will not be possible to use the P11D to report other benefits.
The way in which Class 1A National Insurance contributions are paid will also change. From 2026/27, the contributions due on payrolled benefits will be paid in-year with PAYE and Class 1 National Insurance (as is the case for those due on taxable termination payments and taxable sporting testimonials) rather than being paid after the end of the tax year.