There are four important Employment Law changes that come into force this month
1. Fathers and partners will be entitled to time off to accompany a pregnant woman to an antenatal appointment on up to two occasions. Employees will be eligible to take advantage of the new right straight away without accruing a minimum period of service. Although the right does extend to agency workers, a minimum service requirement applies to trigger eligibility in this context.
2. Where an equal pay claim is submitted on or after 1 October 2010, and the employment tribunal finds that there has been an equal pay breach, it must order the employer to carry out an equal pay audit unless an exception applies.
The exceptions set out in the Equality Act 2010 (Equal Pay Audits) Regulations 2014 relate to, among other things, whether or not the employer has recently carried out an audit that meets certain requirements, and whether or not the benefits delivered by the audit would exceed the disadvantages of conducting it.
3. The national minimum wage increases from 1 October 2014.
- £6.50 for workers 21 and over.
- £5.13 18 – 20 yrs.
- £3.79 for 16-17 yrs, who are above school leaving age but under 18.
- £2.73 for apprentices under 19 or 19 or over who are in the first year of apprenticeship.
4. With effect from 1 October 2014, where an employee is dismissed exclusively (or mainly) because he or she is a member of reserve force, the normal two-year service requirement for bringing an unfair dismissal claim does not apply, and an employee may pursue a claim immediately in these circumstances.
