April 2020: Important Employment Law Changes for Small Businesses

April 2020 Employment Law Changes for Small Businesses

Just to make sure you are all up to date on all the Employment law changes for small businesses from April 2020, please see all the changes below.

National Living Wage / National Minimum Wage

April 2020 Employment Law Changes for Small Businesses mean Statutory Maternity Pay, Statutory Paternity Pay, Statutory Adoption Pay, Statutory Shared Parental Pay and Maternity Allowance will all increase from £148.68 to £151.20 per week.

April 2020 Employment Law Changes for Small Businesses mean Statutory Sick Pay will increase from £94.25 to £95.85 per week.

April 2020 Employment Law Changes for Small Businesses mean Lower Earnings Limit will increase to £120 per week £520 per month £6,240 per year

New Rules on Written Statements of Particulars

From 6 April 2020, these Employment Law Changes for Small Businesses mean employers must provide a written statement of employment particulars to all workers, not just to employees.

Employers will no longer have two months within which to provide the statement – most of the information must be provided in a single document by the start of employment.

These measures will come into force on 6 April 2020. We’ll be letting current clients of Kate Underwood HR & Training know how these Employment Law Changes for Small Businesses will be incorporated into their documentation shortly.

Increase in the Period Over Which Holiday Pay is Calculated

Currently, the holiday pay of a worker who has irregular working hours is calculated by averaging the number of hours worked over the previous 12 weeks (known as ‘the pay reference period’). Under the new regulations, from 6 April 2020, the pay reference period will be 52 weeks or, for those workers who have been working for less than 52 weeks, the total number of weeks they have worked. This change is designed to avoid workers losing out where their working hours are subject to fluctuations such as seasonal variations.

Increase in the ‘Break of Service’ Period

At the moment, a gap of one week or more is sufficient to break continuity of service (except for various situations where legislation dictates that continuity is preserved for a longer period such as redundancy and incapacity dismissals). The government has committed to increasing the gap required to break continuity of service to four weeks, making it easier for employees with irregular working patterns to accumulate continuity of service.

Parental Bereavement Leave & Pay

The right to parental bereavement leave and pay is expected to come into force in April 2020. The right will allow parents of a child under the age of 18 who has died to take two weeks’ leave. It will be available to the birth parents or those with parental responsibility for the child and can be taken within 56 weeks of the child’s death, in a block of two weeks, or two blocks of one week.

Employees will be entitled to parental bereavement leave from day one of their employment, but there will be a qualifying period of 26 weeks for entitlement to parental bereavement pay.

These Employment Law Changes for Small Businesses will come into force on 6 April 2020. We’ll be letting current Kate Underwood HR & Training Clients know how these changes will be incorporated into their documentation shortly.

Pension Increase

There are NO pension increases this year but you need to just confirm that you are paying a total of 8% for each employee.  Generally, it is a 3% Employer payment and a 5% Employer Payment but an employer can choose to pay 4% reducing the employee’s payment by 1%.

What Do You Need to do As An Employer?

• Review your contracts and ensure compliant with the new regulations
• Review your payrates to ensure that they reflect the new rates of pay from 6th April 2020
• Ensure that anyone currenlty on any statutory payment benefits are giving the correct rate from April 2020
• Impletment the new Bereavement Leave Policy

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If you have any questions about the April 2020 Employment Law Changes for Small Businesses, or would just like to book an informal chat, please click here.