In this article...

• Tighter new rules for skilled foreign workers
• Consultation on new Code of Practice
• DBERR publishes new guidance on pregnancy and work
• Employment tax reminders
• Stop press! When is a grievance not a grievance? When it’s an appeal...

The latest news and developments in employment law, reported this month by Chloe Edwards.

Tighter new rules for skilled foreign workers

The Home Office has published details of proposals for much tighter controls on skilled and temporary workers coming to the UK under its new points based scheme (reported in February’s Employment Eye). The schemes will apply to workers in Tier 2 (skilled workers with a job offer) and Tier 5 (youth mobility and temporary workers) and applications will open this autumn.

Under the new scheme, employers must show that they cannot fill a skilled vacancy with a resident worker and must show that the job vacancy has been advertised in the UK, unless the job is on the shortage occupation list. Potential migrants will need a job offer before they apply for a visa. To qualify, skilled foreign nationals will have to earn a certain number of points before being allowed to work in Britain. These points are awarded only if a person can prove they will be doing skilled work, speak a good standard of English, and are earning more than £24,000, or have a sufficient qualifications. Employers will need a licence from the UK Border Agency to offer jobs to skilled workers.

Home Office figures also show that since the introduction of the stricter new regime for checking eligibility to work in the UK, introduced at the end of February this year, 137 businesses were issued with Notices of Potential Liability worth almost half a million pounds. Under the old regime there were only 11 successful prosecutions last year.

Next month, Bevan Brittan’s employment team is hosting workshops for the public and private sectors, which will focus employee checks, including those required under the new illegal working regime. Full details and a booking form for public and private sectors are available here.

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Consultation on new Code of Practice

ACAS has launched a consultation on its new Code of Practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures. The new Code of Practice is designed to reflect the recommendations made by the Gibbons Review, which formed the basis of the Employment Bill 2007.

The new code is much shorter than the current Acas Code of Practice and more principles based than prescriptive. The Code of Practice will be supported by more detailed guidance notes on handling workplace disciplinary and grievance issues, to be published next year.

Responses to the consultation are being sought by Acas by 25 July 2008. Contact details are available in the consultation document.

DBERR publishes new guidance on pregnancy and work

To reflect the changes brought into effect by the new amendments to the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 (reported in Employment Eye, March 2008), the DBERR has updated its guidance document, pregnancy and work: what you need to know as an employer.

Employment tax reminders

With the new financial year underway, employers are reminded of the following dates and deadlines.

		Forms 914 and P35 returns must be with HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) by 19 May 2008. Employers should be aware that late returns or those containing errors can result in a penalty from HMRC.
		Employees must have received their P60 forms by 31 May 2008.
		Forms P9D, P11D and P11D(b) must be with HMRC, and copies provided to employees, by 6 July 2008.
		Termination packages that exceed £30,000 in either cash or benefits must also be reported to HMRC by 6 July 2008.

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Stop press! When is a grievance not a grievance? When it’s an appeal...

As Employment Eye was going to press, the Court of Appeal handed down judgment in Towergate London Marketing v Harris. Another nail in the coffin of the much maligned statutory dispute resolution procedures, this case confirms the courts’ willingness to avoid a prohibitively technical approach to the statutory dispute resolution procedures.

The Claimant had raised a grievance after being dismissed for reason of redundancy. Having later discovered that the selection process may not have been properly followed, she sought to resolve her issues with the employer and, subsequently, lodged an employment tribunal claim two months after the expiry of the normal time limit. Under the statutory procedures, she should have put in an appeal; not a grievance and the employer argued that she should not benefit from an extension of time. The Court found against the employer and held that most employees do not have access to employment law advice, and the Claimant in this case clearly had a belief that a procedure of some kind was being followed.

As we previously reported (see Employment Eye January 2008) the Employment Bill 2007 is due to abolish the statutory procedures altogether. The principal significance of this case, therefore, seems to be that legislation will soon reflect judicial attitudes towards what one senior judge has described as “rebarbative” procedures.