Employment Law Timetable

National Minimum Wage

The following rates will come into force on 1st October 2012 as follows:

• £6.19 per hour for workers aged 21 and over - a rise of 11 pence
• £4.98 per hour for 18-20 years olds - no change
• £3.68 per hour for workers above school leaving age but under 18 - no change
• £2.65 per hour for apprentices - a rise of 5 pence.

If your employer provides you with accommodation, they can count some of its value towards your National Minimum Wage pay.  This is called the accommodation offset.  From October 2012, the maximum that employers can count towards NMW pay will be £4.82 - a rise of 9 pence.

The following legislation is due to be made UK law between 2012 and 2046:

Compensatory Awards increases effective from 1st February 2012

Exemption from new regulation for small businesses

1st April 2011
The start of a three-year exemption from new domestic regulation for businesses with fewer than 10 employees and a public audit of almost 22,000 statutory instruments that are currently in force. The three-year exemption from new domestic regulation will apply to businesses with fewer than 10 employees and "genuine start-ups". The exemption will not extend to regulation in public safety and national security.

Statutory maternity, paternity and adoption pay
3rd April 2011
The standard rate of statutory maternity, paternity and adoption pay increased from £124.88 to £128.73

Additional paternity leave and pay comes into force
3rd April 2011
Employees who are fathers, spouses or partners of mothers, and employees who have been matched for adoption and are the spouses or partners of the person taking adoption leave are entitled to take additional paternity leave of up to 26 weeks in the first year of their child’s life or the first year after the child’s placement for adoption subject to certain rules. These employees may be entitled to additional paternity pay. This applies where the expected date of birth or the adoption matching date is on or after 3rd April.

Single equality duty
5th April 2011
Public authorities will have to have regard to eliminate discriminatory conduct when undertaking and exercising their functions. This part of the Equality Act 2010 replaces the public sector single equality duty.

Annual limit on economic migration to the UK comes into force
6th April 2011
The number of people permitted to enter the UK from outside the EU is limited to 20,700 per annum under the skilled worker route (except for those earning a salary of more than £150,000 or in-country applications from those in the UK), and 1,000 per annum under the new exceptional talent route. Employers will be required to apply for a certificate of sponsorship for a specific post if they wish to bring someone to the UK. Tier 2 (general) is open only to migrants performing jobs at graduate level and tier 1 is restricted to all but entrepreneurs, investors and the exceptionally talented. The minimum salary for individuals who wish to enter the UK under the intra-company transfer route for more than 12 months is £40,000 but there is no limit on the number of migrants in this category.

Default retirement age abolished
6th April 2011
Employers are now prohibited from issuing new notifications of retirement using the default retirement age. An employer that issued a notification of retirement before 6 April 2011 will be able to retire the employee if his or her retirement date is before 1 October 2011. Employees who reach 65 on or after 1st October cannot be retired under the transitional period. In order to continue to utilise a compulsory retirement age an employer will have to test and demonstrate that it can be justified as ‘a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim’.

Increase in personal allowance and national insurance contributions for employees
6th April 2011
National Insurance contributions increased by one per cent for employees. The personal allowance for income tax for basic rate tax payers (below the age of 65) increased by £1000.

Increase in national insurance thresholds and contributions for employers
6th April 2011
Employers' national insurance thresholds increased by £21 per week above indexation. Employers' national insurance contributions increased by 1%.

Social Security (Contributions) (Amendment No.2) Regulations 2011 come into force
6th April 2011
The Regulations amend the lower and upper earnings limits for primary class 1 national insurance contributions and the primary and secondary thresholds for primary and secondary class 1 national insurance contributions.

Statutory sick pay
6th April 2011
The standard statutory sick pay rate increases from £79.15 to £81.60 per week.

Codes of practice on Equality Act 2010 come into force
6th April 2011
The Equality Act 2010 Codes of Practice (Services, Public Functions and Associations, Employment, and Equal Pay) brings into force the codes of practice on employment, equal pay and services, public functions and associations, which aim to help employers comply with their obligations under the Equality Act 2010.

Positive action (Equality Act 2010)
6th April 2011
This section of the Equality Act comes into force to allow employers to treat individuals with a protected characteristic more favourably than others in connection with recruitment or promotion. This will only apply where candidates are of equal merit and where the more favourable treatment will enable/encourage an individual to overcome/minimise a disadvantage or participate in an activity where he or she is under-represented in that activity.

Right to make a request in relation to study or training for organisations with fewer than 250 employees – on hold
This extension planned for 6th April for organisations with fewer that 250 employees is currently on hold.

Right to request flexible working extension to parents of children under 18 - on hold
The extension planned from 6th April is currently on hold

Dual Discrimination
Planned for April 2011
Provisions in the Equality Act 2011 will not now be implemented

Increase in basic state pension
11th April 2011
The basic state pension increased from £97.65 to £102.15 per week, in accordance with the rise in the retail prices index for the 12 months to September 2010.

Transnational Information and Consultation of Employees (Amendment) Regulations 2010 come into force
5th June 2011
The Regulations implement new rights to European Works Council members and some others to undergo training to help them undertake their duties.

EU blue-card Directive must be implemented
19th June 2011
The EU Blue Card Directive defines conditions of entry and residence for more than three months of people who are not EU citizens and apply to be admitted to the EU for the purpose of high-qualified employment.

Bribery offences introduced
1st July 2011
The Bribery Act 2010 aims to promote anti-bribery practices among businesses, by modernising the law on bribery. The Act introduces a corporate offence of failure to prevent bribery by persons working on behalf of a business. A business has a defence if it has adequate procedures in place to prevent bribery. The penalty is an unlimited fine. For individuals, it will be a criminal offence to give, promise or offer a bribe and to request, agree to receive or accept a bribe. The legislation raises the maximum penalty for bribery by individuals from seven to 10 years’ imprisonment.

National Minimum Wage
1st October 2011
The following rates per hour will increase:
Adult rate: £5.93 - £6.08
18-20 year olds: £4.92 - £4.98
16-17 year olds:£3.64 -£3.68
Apprentices: £2.50 to £2.60

Equal treatment for agency workers
1st October 2011
The Agency Workers Regulations 2010 are to be implemented. This will give agency workers the same basic employment conditions after 12 weeks in a given job as if they had been employed directly by the end-user.

Vetting and barring scheme introduced
To be confirmed
A scaled back vetting and barring scheme for individuals working with children and vulnerable adults is introduced. The Protection of Freedoms Bill amends the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 by abolishing registration with the scheme and monitoring requirements. It maintains a barring scheme but redefines the activities to which the scheme applies.

Parental leave increases from three to four months
8th March 2012
The minimum parental leave following the birth or adoption of a child increases from three to four months. At least one of the four months will not be transferable between parents. Member states have until 8 March 2013 to bring this into force.

Unfair Dismissal
6th April 2012
Qualifying period increases to 24 months from 12 months for employees appointed on or after 6th April 2012.

Personal Accounts scheme starts up under Pensions Act 2008
October 2012
The Pensions Act 2008 provides that employers must automatically enrol all eligible employees not already participating in a workplace pension scheme into the employer's pension scheme or the new personal accounts scheme under the National Employment Savings Trust pension scheme. The threshold for automatic enrolment is aligned with the personal allowance for income tax. Employers are not required automatically to enrol individuals employed for under 12 weeks. To encourage participation, employees’ pension contributions will be supplemented by employers' contributions and tax relief.

School leaving age is raised to 17
2013
The Education and Skills Act 2008 changes the statutory framework to put a duty on all young people in England to participate in education or training until the age of 17. It also amends legislation about the provision of adult education and training, and support for young people.

Flexible Working for all employees
2015
It is envisaged that the right to request flexible working will be extended to all employees.

"Flexible" maternity and paternity leave is introduced
2015
Changes are made to maternity and paternity leave to give parents more flexibility as to when they take time off. It is expected that the changes will allow both parents to take leave at the same time, instead of the mother having to have returned to work before the father can take additional paternity leave, and allow parents to take time off in blocks, rather than all in one go.

School leaving age is raised to 18
2015
The Education and Skills Act 2008 changes the statutory framework to put a duty on all young people in England to participate in education or training until the age of 18. It also amends legislation about the provision of adult education and training, and support for young people.

Equalisation of state pension age for women
April 2016
The state pension age for women is equalised with the state pension age for men by November 2018, with an expedited increase from April 2016.

State pension age rises to 66 years
December 2018
The Pensions Act 2007 raises the state pension age from 65 to 66 years to reflect the ageing nature of the population. The rise in the state pension age to 66 for men and women begins gradually from December 2018 until April 2020. The Pensions Act 2007 also raises the state pension age to 67 and 68.

State pension age rises to 67 years
Between 2034 and 2036
The Pensions Act 2007 raises the state pension age for men and women to 67. This will occur between April 2034 and April 2036.

State pension age rises to 68 years Between 2044 and 2046
The Pensions Act 2007 raises the state pension age for men and women to 68. This will occur between April 2044 and April 2046.