Employment law in 2020

Employment law in 2020: Action points for HR

Brexit

Ensure that your employees applied for settled or pre-settled status. Always make a copy of their passport or national ID, and retain them.

IR35 in the private sector

Changes to the IR35 rules on off-payroll working are due to be extended to medium and large private-sector employers in April 2020.  On 7 January 2020, the government announced that it would carry out a review of the implementation of the changes to IR35, but confirmed that the new rules are due to come into force on 6 April 2020.

National minimum wage and other statutory rate increases

The rates for the national minimum wage will increase on 01/04/2020. The national living wage rate, will increase from £8.21 to £8.72.

The rates for younger workers will also increase, with hourly rates rising to £8.20 for workers aged at least 21 but under 25, to £6.45 for workers aged at least 18 but under 21 and to £4.55 for workers aged under 18 who are no longer of compulsory school age. The proposed rate for statutory maternity (SMP), adoption, paternity and shared parental pay will also increase – more here

Written statements of particulars

From 06/04/2020, 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.

The information that must be provided in the statement will include information on variable working hours, paid leave other than sick pay, benefits, probationary periods and training.

Holiday pay for workers with irregular hours

The reference period for calculating holiday pay for workers who do not work regular hours will change from 12 to 52 weeks on 06/04/2020. Employers will need to pay workers without normal hours their average weekly pay, calculated over the previous 12 months, rather than the previous 12 weeks.