Introduction

SYLO | Beyond HR. are pleased to provide you with our latest quarterly employment law update. We hope that you and your teams are keeping well, have emerged from the winter Omicron wave unscathed and are looking forward to the longer, lighter days of spring!

 

1) Hybrid Working

Hybrid working continues to be on the rise; more and more businesses are taking up this modern way of working. However, there is no ‘one-size fits all’ approach when it comes to its implementation; and employers will need to consider which form of hybrid working would best suit their business needs and direction. If you are considering a shift to a more hybrid working environment, then do check out our YouTube video ‘Are you prepared for Hybrid Working?’ where you can catch up on our webinar recording. Alternatively, you are welcome to contact us directly for tailored support and advice.

 

2) Increased statutory rates

Between 1st – 6th April 2022, statutory rates will increase:

  • National Living Wage will rise from £8.91 to £9.50 an hour for workers aged 23 years and over.
  • Statutory family-friendly payments (maternity, paternity, adoption, and shared parental pay) will increase from £151.20 (or 90 per cent of employee’s weekly earnings if this is lower) to £151.97.
  • Statutory sick pay will increase from £95.85 to £96.35 for all qualifying employees and workers1.
  • Statutory redundancy payment cap to increase from £544 to £571 for a week’s pay.
  • Maximum compensation award limits will also increase for claims (including all unfair dismissal claims). This also includes awards to employees due to a company’s failure to uphold their employment rights (e.g. Failure to allow right to be accompanied correctly, failure to give written statement of particulars, etc.). · Disclosure and Barring Service fees will also increase. More information can be found here.

 

3) Health and Social Care Levy

The health and social care levy will come into effect in April 2022, with a 1.25% increase in national insurance (NI) contributions, with dividend tax rates increasing by the same percentage rate. This will be payable by both employers and employees who are subject to Class 1 NI contributions, and to those self-employed who pay Class 4 NI contributions. This will be a new tax, separate from NICs

(National Insurance Contributions), however, whilst HMRC get their IT systems updated to reflect this, the levy will initially be raised through increased NI contributions; the new tax in the form of a 1.25% surcharge will replace the NI contributions increase in 2023.

 

4) COVID-19

New Government Guidance

From 24th February this year, the Government replaced the legal requirement to self-isolate following a positive test with public health guidance to self-isolate. Along with special rules on statutory sick pay due to COVID-19 ending on 24th March, the end of free testing (from 1st April), contact tracing and self-isolation payments, this, of course, has brought up a lot of questions from employers.

What businesses can do

It would be prudent for businesses to start planning and defining their own approach to managing COVID-19 related cases and absences in their workforce. This can be done by way of putting a policy together and consulting with staff.

We would advise against having different rules and/or incentives for vaccinated and unvaccinated staff members, as this could potentially be discriminatory if not implemented correctly. There’s a delicate balance for any employer between the rights of an unvaccinated employee and the rights of other staff not to be subjected to an increased risk of infection. Unfortunately, it is not likely that we will get any guidance on this from the tribunal system for a couple of years so employers are largely operating in the dark, therefore it’s important to take professional advice before trying to do this.

The current public health guidance for anyone that tests positive is to stay home for at least five days and avoid contact with others, and they should continue to do so until they have two negative test results on consecutive days or, 10 days have passed since symptoms first began/since the individual received a positive test result.

As an employer, you have a duty of care to protect your employees in the workplace and with the legal restrictions on self-isolation removed, this very much places the onus on employers to set and communicate expectations. Please do get in touch if you would like help and advice on developing your own COVID-19 procedures.

How SSP (Statutory Sick Pay) will change after 24th March for COVID-19

It would make sense that employers do what they can to enable employees to stay home if they are COVID-positive. For example, if well enough to work, employers can allow employees to work from home for the recommended isolation period, if possible. If they are not well enough to work (and until 24th March), statutory sick pay will continue to be payable from day one of the sickness absence for employees who have tested positive but cannot work from home.

For those that test positive after the 24th of March and, the nature of their work cannot allow for them to take up temporary home-working arrangements, it may make sense for employers to consider introducing their own company sick pay scheme for such instances, for the purposes of minimising the spread of the virus to others and to uphold their duties on maintaining a healthy and safe working environment for staff. It may be difficult to prevent individuals from attending work without

their agreement to self-isolate without pay; hence why it would be worth exploring the option of introducing company-paid sick leave during the recommended isolation period.

Screening and testing

Depending on the work setting, some businesses will understandably want to retain workplace screening and testing requirements. In such instances, employers will not be able to force employees to take up any extra costs for screening and testing from 1st April when these are no longer freely available on the NHS. It will unfortunately be a cost the employer will need to cover. We await to hear whether there will be any tax exemptions for employers paying for workplace testing from 5th April onwards.

Looking after clinically vulnerable staff members

Understandably, these individuals will continue to feel increasingly anxious with restrictions lifting, and employers may find they are dealing with staff that do not want to come into the workplace, particularly if appropriate measures to reasonably mitigate the spread of COVID-19 are not taken.

The Health and Safety at Work Regulations (1999) requires that ‘so far as is practicable, any persons at work who are exposed to serious and imminent danger to be informed of the nature of the hazard and of the steps taken or to be taken to protect them from it’. This means that, should an employee have a genuine reason to believe that they are in serious and imminent danger whilst at work or conducting their work duties, they can justifiably not attend or conduct work. This further adds to the importance of businesses continuing to maintain health and safety standards to help prevent catching and spreading the virus in the workplace, risk assessing and thoroughly communicating with staff on its measures and protocols.

 

5) Cost Of Living Increase

There is no doubt that the rise in cost of living is going to make life extremely difficult this year. Employees and employers alike will be faced with increased bills, outgoings, and overheads as well as the imminent NI levy in April.

It is likely that many employees impacted by the cost-of-living squeeze may naturally begin to look to the jobs market to see if some financial gains can be made by switching jobs. Retention, will therefore be a key focus for employers in the coming months, balanced of course with affordability. Employers may wish to consider taking some proactive measures to help mitigate this, if they feel there may be cause for concern around staff retention. A good starting place is to undertake a salary and benefits market review/benchmarking exercise to ensure that your current employee offering is fair, reasonable, and competitive for your particular sector and/or, in relation to your competitors. Ensuring you are regularly communicating all that you offer to your employees is also key, such as your employee benefits (including any non-financial benefits). Employee wellbeing will also be a key, particularly thinking about what support you may be able to offer your employees in the form of financial wellbeing, such as access to help and support around debt management and budgeting skills.

You can watch our recent webinar recording which explores wellbeing in the workplace, and financial wellbeing in particular, in more detail here.

Please do speak to your HR Lead if you would like to explore further how we can support you with retention, or, more generally, the impacts of the cost-of-living increase on your business and your people.

 

6) Potential Upcoming Developments

Pregnancy and Maternity Redundancy Protection Bill

We are still waiting for a date as to when this legislation will be implemented. The Government have said that it will be brought forward once parliamentary time allows.

As a reminder, the Government is proposing to introduce measures to increase protections against redundancy for the following individuals:

  • Pregnant employees, once they have advised their employer of their pregnancy
  • Employees returning from maternity or adoption leave within the previous six months
  • Parents returning from shared parental leave.

The proposals are in response to an earlier (pre-pandemic) consultation on pregnancy and maternity discrimination. An employee at risk of redundancy while on maternity, adoption, or shared parental leave has the right to be offered any suitable alternative vacancy that is available.

Flexible working – proposal to become a ‘Day One’ right

There have been no further updates on this matter but it is still very much in the pipeline for the future.

As a reminder, in addition to making flexible working requests a ‘day one’ right, the Government consultation proposes:

  • Requiring employers to suggest alternatives if they reject the employee’s request
  • Allowing the change to be temporary rather than permanent
  • Reviewing whether the eight business reasons for refusing a request remain valid.

Neonatal Leave and Pay (Expected in 2023)

There is a commitment to introduce extra-statutory leave and pay for all parents of premature babies needing specialist care in a neonatal unit. In March 2020, the government confirmed its intention to introduce 12 weeks’ paid leave for parents in this position to avoid them having to choose between returning to work and taking care of their newborn baby. It has been indicated that the premature baby leave would be in addition to existing maternity and paternity pay provisions. Although details on how it will work are yet to be released, the leave is expected to be taken after maternity/paternity leave, in blocks of one or more weeks, and paid at the statutory rate for those employees with 26 weeks’ service.

There was also a Budget 2020 commitment to consult on a new ‘in-work entitlement’ for employees with unpaid caring responsibilities, such as for a family member or a dependant.

 

Finally

As a valued client, we would like to continue to keep you updated on key topics which we feel would be of interest to you and your business, for example employment-related developments and hot topics, details of our online training programmes and our quarterly Employment Law updates.

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We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued support and, should you wish to explore any of the topics highlighted in this bulletin, we would be happy to discuss them further with you. Please drop us a line at enquiries@sylobeyondhr.com.