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New Employment laws in force in April 2007
Employment Lawyers Association
02 April 2007
The Employment Lawyers Association sets out the key employment law changes taking place in April 2007
1 April
- The rate of statutory paternity pay, maternity allowance, statutory adoption pay and the basic rate of statutory maternity pay increases from £108.85 to £112.75 a week.
- The changes to maternity and adoption provisions under the Maternity and Parental Leave etc and Paternity and Adoption Leave (Amendment) Regulations 2006, which came into force in October 2006, apply where the expected week of childbirth or placement for adoption falls on or after 1 April.
2 April
- The Health Act 2006 will ban smoking in enclosed or substantially enclosed public spaces and workplaces in Wales from 2 April. An analogous ban comes into force in Northern Ireland on 30 April, and in England on 1 July.
6 April
- The Flexible Working (Eligibility, Complaints and Remedies) (Amendment) Regulations 2006 will extend the right to request flexible working to carers of adults.
- Statutory sick pay increases from £70.05 to £72.55 a week.
- The Employment Equality (Age) (Consequential Amendments) Regulations 2007 will provide that a redundancy dismissal is unfair if the reason for selection is an employee exercising, or seeking to exercise, his or her right to be accompanied, or to accompany another, at a meeting to request working beyond the intended date of retirement. These Regulations also exempt age discrimination complaints from a fixed conciliation period and provide that age claims are to be treated like other discrimination claims under the Dispute Resolution Regulations.
- The Information and Consultation Regulations 2004, which oblige employers to institute a formal information and consultation procedure, will apply to all companies with 100 or more employees.
- Under the Equality Act 2006, all public authorities in England, Wales and Scotland must comply with the ‘gender equality duty’. This requires them to demonstrate that they are promoting equality for women and men and are taking steps to eliminate discrimination and sexual harassment.
- The Employment Act 2002 (Amendment of Schedules 3, 4 and 5) Order 2006 extends the remit of the statutory dispute resolution procedures to cover complaints under Reg 45 of the European Public Limited-Liability Company Regulations 2004; Reg 33 of the Information and Consultation of Employees Regulations 2004; and Reg 17 and the Schedule to the Occupational and Personal Pension Schemes (Consultation by Employers and Miscellaneous Amendment) Regulations 2006.
30 April
- The Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2007 will outlaw discrimination on the ground of sexual orientation in the provision of goods and services.
- Part 2 of the Equality Act 2006 will come into force, thereby amending the definition of religion or belief in discrimination legislation, and also outlawing religious discrimination in the provision of goods and services.
- The smoking ban comes into force in Northern Ireland (see above).
- Under the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 (Public Authorities) (Statutory Duties) Order 2006, certain listed public authorities are obliged to publish a gender equality scheme by this date.