On the horizon: key employment legislation and cases in 2008
January 2008
The coming year looks set to be just as busy as 2007 in terms of legislative and case law developments. Julian Hoskins looks at what’s coming up.
| Date | Legislation | Details |
| 1 February | The annual increases in statutory compensation limits for employment tribunal claims take effect. The new limit on a week’s pay will be £330 and the maximum compensatory award will increase to £63,000. | |
| 29 February | Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006 | For staff employed from this date there will be new civil penalties for illegally employing migrant workers, with a maximum fine per illegal worker of £10,000. There will be a new criminal offence for employers who knowingly employ illegal migrant workers, carrying a maximum two year prison sentence and/or an unlimited fine; and there will be a continuing responsibility for employers of migrant workers with a time-limited immigration status to check their ongoing entitlement to work in the United Kingdom. Codes of Practice will be published by the Border and Immigration Agency, explaining how penalties can be avoided and how the level of penalties will be decided. |
| 6 April | Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses (Amendment) Regulations 2007 | Employment agencies will be required to provide work-seekers with a statement in writing, setting out their right to withdraw from the agency’s services. There will also be protection for work-seekers from being charged fees where information regarding fees has not been provided. See Employment Eye December 2007 for more details. |
| 6 April | Information and Consultation of Employees Regulations 2004 | The Information and Consultation of Employees Regulations will be extended to cover undertakings with 50 or more employees. |
| 6 April | Sex Discrimination Act (Amendment) Regulations 2007 | Expected implementation date for the Sex Discrimination Act (Amendment) Regulations 2007. These regulations are intended to implement the EU Gender Directive. The Act will: - clarify that sexual harassment and harassment on grounds of sex in access to and the provision of goods, facilities, services or premises is unlawful; - extend protection from discrimination on grounds of gender reassignment to the provision of goods, facilities and services; - clarify that less favourable treatment on the grounds of a woman's pregnancy in the provision of goods and services is unlawful; and - provide that, where there are gender based differences in insurance premiums and benefits in relation to financial and insurance products, these differences must be based on relevant, up to date and accurate data. |
| 6 April | Statutory maternity, paternity and adoption pay and maternity allowances | SMP, SPP and SAP and maternity allowance will increase to £117.18 per week. |
| 6 April | Statutory sick pay | SSP will rise to £75.40 per week. |
| 6 April | Occupational and Personal Pension Schemes (Consultation by Employers and Miscellaneous Amendment) Regulations 2006 | The Occupational and Personal Pension Schemes (Consultation by Employers and Miscellaneous Amendment) Regulations will be extended to cover undertakings with 50 or more employees. The requirement to consult will be triggered by proposed changes to members’ benefits and contributions. |
| 6 April | Corporate Manslaughter and Homicide Act 2007 | The Corporate Manslaughter and Homicide Act will create a new offence of corporate manslaughter, where a death is caused by gross negligence committed by companies and other organisations. Under the new Act, an organisation will be guilty of an offence if the way in which its activities are organised by senior management causes a person’s death and there has been a gross breach of a duty of care owed to that person. |
| Summer 2008/April 2009 | Employment Bill 2007 | The Employment Bill was published on 6 December 2007 and had its second reading in the House of Lords on 7 January 2008. Amongst other changes, the Bill proposes to abolish the statutory dismissal and disciplinary procedures and strengthen ACAS’s power to conciliate claims. Further details are set out in the article on the Employment Bill 2007 that forms part of this month’s Employment Eye. |
Key cases
Forthcoming decisions from the European Court of Justice are:
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Heyday v Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, concerning the Age Concern backed challenge to the retirement provisions set out in the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006, particularly those relating to the default retirement age of 65. | |
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HM Revenue and Customs v Stringer and ors (previously known as Commissioners of Inland Revenue v Ainsworth), on whether workers on long-term sick leave who have exhausted their occupational sick pay entitlement can benefit from paid holiday under the working time legislation (opinion of the Advocate General delivered on 24 January 2008 - see this months alert). | |
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Attridge Law and another v Coleman, on whether it is possible to discriminate against a non-disabled employee because of their association with a disabled person. |
A decision from the Court of Appeal is expected early in 2008 in James v Greenwich Borough Council, to determine the employment status of an agency worker who had been supplied to the end-user Council for some five years, and had been treated (for practical purposes) as an employee.
Oyarce v Cheshire County Council, on whether the reverse burden of proof applies to claims of victimisation, was heard by the Court of Appeal in December 2007 and the decision is likely to be handed down this year.
The Court of Appeal will also be deciding the important equal pay claim of Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council v Bainbridge (joined with part of Middlesbrough Council v Surtees), on whether it was discriminatory to put in place transitional provisions to protect male workers’ pay while measures were put in place to bring comparable female workers’ pay up to the same level.
Permission to appeal to the House of Lords is being sought in the case of Keeley v Fosroc International Limited, which held that an enhanced redundancy scheme in a handbook was incorporated into an employee’s contract of employment.
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