Acas made many changes to its laws about working rights, sick pay and statutory holidays last month, and if your business does not comply to them, you could face some serious financial penalties.

So, What Are They?

1. Student Migrant Workers

All adults now wishing to work in the UK must have a Tier 4 Student Visa, which allows them to study in the UK with a licensed sponsor on the Tier 4 register of sponsors.

2. Employing Migrant Workers

The new regulations state that employers will not be able to hire tier 2 migrant workers unless the job has been advertised for at least 2 weeks on JobCentre Plus. Tier 1 workers will have to possess a masters degree and earn at least £20,000 per year.

3. Statutory Holiday Pay

Compulsory holiday entitlement has risen from 4.8 to 5.6 weeks (from 24 to 28 days for those working 5 days a week).

4. Statutory Dispute Resolution Procedures

The dismissal of this has finally been repealed in the new Acas code, effective as of April this year.

5. Flexible Working

This right has been extended to parents with children aged 16 or under. Applications are available up to the day before the child’s 17th birthday.

6. National Minimum Wage

Fines for not complying with the national minimum wage have been increase. Workers are also now entitled to have arrears of wages repaid. Any fines employers face will be payable to the Secretary of State

7. Maternity, Paternity, Adoption Pay

Statutory pay has been increased from £117.18 to £123.06 for those that have just had children and therefore wish to take time off work.

8. Statutory Sick Pay

This has also been increased from £75.40 to £79.15.

9. P45s

From April all employers must use the new style P45s which were initially introduced by HM Revenue and Customs in October so readily available already. Any old P45s are now invalid.

10. Trade Union Membership Rules

These have been amended. From April Unions are allowed to expel or exclude individuals on the basis of his or her current or previous membership of a political party.

11. TUPE Regulations 2006

Regulations that require having notification of any disciplinary or grievance procedure taken against an employee under which statutory dispute resolution procedures apply have been amended. Notification is now required where a relevant Code of Practice applies.

12.  Health & Safety

The Health and Safety Information for Employees (Amendment) Regulations 2009 has minor changes applying to how employers may provide health and safety information to employees.

13. Employment Tribunal Regulations 2008

An amendment has been made to change the procedural process of tribunal practice. This includes default judgements, electronic communication, withdrawal of proceedings and Stage 1 equal value hearings.

What Do You Think?

We would love to know your thoughts and opinions on these changes. Leave your comments here.

Bookmark Us
  • Digg
  • Sphinn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Google
  • Reddit
  • StumbleUpon
  • TwitThis

Our Random Articles

More Links