April 2019: Changes to Employment Law legislation
1 January 2019
Executive pay gap reporting in force
From this date, regulations made under the Companies Act 2006 require UK listed companies with more than 250 UK employees to report annually on the pay gap between their chief executive and their average UK worker.
The first reports are due in 2020.
25 January 2019
Consultation on extending pregnancy protection
The government has produced a consultation on extending discrimination protection during pregnancy and maternity. The proposals build on evidence of discrimination against pregnant women and new parents from BEIS, the Equality and Human Rights Commission, and the Taylor report, and recommendations from the Women and Equalities Select Committee.
The proposals include extending the ‘protected period’ to six months after the new mother returns to work – currently the special protections against redundancy finish when maternity leave ends, or two weeks after pregnancy ends for women not entitled to maternity leave. Giving parents returning from adoption or shared parental leave the same rights is also proposed.
30 March 2019
EU settlement scheme fully open
A scheme to protect EU citizens’ right to remain in the UK once freedom of movement ends following Brexit will be fully open to applications from 30 March 2019, having been piloted since January.
EU citizens who have already been in the UK for five years may apply for settled status, while those who have been here for under five years can apply for pre-settled status. All EU citizens will need to apply, even if they already have permanent residency in the UK, and applications can be made up until the end of transitional period under the withdrawal agreement. The new status is not dependent on employment.
The process is fully digital, can be completed on a smart phone, and is free from 30 March (previously there was a £65 charge).
From January 2021 a new immigration system will apply to EU and non-EU citizens.
30 March 2019
Gender pay gap reports (public sector)
‘Specified public authorities’, including government departments, the armed forces, local authorities, the NHS and state schools, with 250 or more employees, are required to publish their gender pay gap reports by this date, based on data gathered on 31 March each year.
The requirements for the reports, under the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties and Public Authorities) Regulations 2017, are largely the same as those that apply to private and voluntary sector organisations of the same size.
31 March 2019
Modern slavery statement ‘naming and shaming’.
The Home Office will be conducting an audit of annual anti-slavery statements and publishing a list of businesses that have failed to publish their statement for the 2018 financial year by 31 March 2019 deadline.
The ‘naming and shaming’ is seen as a prelude to strengthening the reporting requirements under the legislation and, possibly, introducing sanctions for non-compliance.
1 April 2019
National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage
Chancellor Philip Hammond announced in the Budget 2018 new National Minimum/Living Wage from 1 April 2019 as:
4 April 2019
Gender pay gap reports (private and voluntary sectors)
Private and voluntary sector employers in England, Wales and Scotland with at least 250 employees are required to publish information about the differences in pay and bonuses between men and women in their workforce, based on a ‘snapshot’ date of 5 April each year, under the Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2017. The first set of reports was published in 2018, and the second reports are due by 4 April 2019.
Similar reporting requirements apply to larger public sector employers.
Provisions under the Northern Irish Employment Act 2016 mirror these, except they include fines of up to £5,000 for non-compliance, and a requirement to report on ethnicity and disability pay gaps, as well as gender.
6 April 2019
Good work plan: employer penalties for breaches
The government’s ‘Good work plan’, published in December 2018, made a commitment to increase the penalties for employers that repeatedly breach their employment law obligations. Tribunals have the power to impose a £5,000 ‘aggravated breach’ penalty on employers losing cases, and from 6 April 2019, the maximum limit on these penalties will rise to £20,000.
6 April 2019
Pay slip changes
Two important changes to the Employment Rights Act 1996, affecting pay slip information, will come into force on 6 April:
6 April 2019
Compensation limits
Tribunal compensation limits increase from 6 April 2019. The new rates are:
For more information and levels of other rates, see Statutory rates and compensation limits.
On the same date, the Vento bands for calculating injury to feelings awards in discrimination claims for England and Wales increased as follows:
6 April 2019
Statutory sick pay rate
Statutory sick pay (SSP) rises from £92.05 to £94.25 on 6 April 2019.
The lower earnings limit rises from £116 to £118 on the same date.
7 April 2019
Statutory maternity, paternity etc rates
Statutory maternity (SMP), paternity (SPP), adoption (SAP) and shared parental pay (ShPP) rises from £145.18 to £148.68 a week from 7 April 2019.
The lower earnings limit rises from £116 to £118 on the same date.
20 May 2019
WEC pregnancy and maternity redundancy protection Bill
Women and Equalities Committee (WEC) chair Maria Miller introduced on this date a Bill to extend protection against redundancy for pregnant women and mothers. The Pregnancy and Maternity (Redundancy Protection) Bill 2019 would have prohibited redundancy during, and for six months after, pregnancy and maternity leave, except in certain circumstances.
The Bill followed a Department for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) consultation on the same issue (see '25 January 2019 - Consultation on extending pregnancy protection' above) and research which found that one in nine women had been dismissed, or felt forced to resign, after returning from maternity leave, but did not have government backing.
The government published a response to its consultation on 22 July 2019 (see '22 July 2019 - Extending pregnancy protection from redundancy' below). Parliament announced on 10 October 2019 that the WEC Bill had failed to complete its passage through Parliament and will make no further progress.
29 May 2019
Proposed expansion of shortage occupation list
The Migration Advisory Committee (MAC), which advises the government on immigration matters, has recommended increasing the shortage occupation list to cover around 9% of jobs in the labour market (including nurses, computer programmers, web designers, and chefs working in food takeaways) instead of the 1% the list currently covers. The shortage occupation list allows employers to offer work to non-EU nationals without carrying out a resident labour market test.
The MAC recommendations follow a full review of the shortage occupation list and acknowledges the increasing difficulty employers face in recruiting skilled employees in a shrinking labour market. Its review related to the current immigration system and the MAC has suggested a further review will be required post-Brexit.
11 July 2019
Consultation on sexual harassment
The Government Equalities Office has published a consultation on whether the current laws designed to protect workforces from sexual harassment at work are adequate.
The consultation asks:
15 July 2019
Consultation on extension of sick pay to lowest paid
The government has produced ‘proposals to reduce ill-health related job loss’ aimed at encouraging employers to take early action on long-term health conditions and improve access to cost-effective occupational health. The proposals include:
16 July 2019
Good work plan: consultation on single enforcement body
The government has put forward proposals to create a new single enforcement body for employment rights responsible for:
Matthew Taylor, whose ‘Good work’ review for the government suggested the single enforcement body, takes on the role of Director of Labour Market Enforcement for one year from 1 August 2019.
19 July 2019
Good work plan: consultations on parental leave and flexibility
The government has published a consultation document, stemming from its ‘Good work plan’, on strengthening support for working families. The consultation covers three aspects of protecting parents at work:
The second part of the consultation proposes a new ‘day one’ right to neonatal leave for parents of seriously ill babies needing two weeks or more hospital care. The amount of leave will be capped and paid at the statutory rate subject to the qualifying conditions for paternity pay.
The third part asks whether employers with 250 or more staff should be required to publish details of their family friendly policies, including flexible working arrangements, on their websites, and whether job ads should be required to state an organisation’s approach to flexibility.
The consultation on parental leave and pay closes on 29 November, and the consultations on neonatal leave and pay, and transparency on flexible working, close on 11 October 2019.
On the same date, the government launched a consultation on addressing unfair flexible working practices, seeking views on proposals from the Low Pay Commission on providing:
21 July 2019
Misuse of non-disclosure agreements
Theresa May’s government made a commitment on this date to legislate to tackle the misuse of confidentiality clauses (also known as non-disclosure agreements, or NDAs) in employment contracts and settlement agreements, including those being used to cover up sexual harassment and racial discrimination.
In its ‘measures to prevent misuse’ document, the government undertook to legislate so that:
The government also said it would ensure that enforcement measures for unlawful NDAs appear in written particulars and settlement agreements, and produce guidance for legal professionals on drafting confidentiality clauses. It is already the law that an employee must receive legal advice before signing an NDA, and that an NDA can’t prevent whistleblowing ‘in the public interest’.
The measures are in response to a consultation conducted earlier in the year. The government planned to legislate 'when Parliamentary time allows' and in response to its own consultation on the issue (see 11 July 2019 – Consultation on sexual harassment’ above).
On 18 October 2019, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) published guidance on the ‘use of confidentiality agreements in discrimination cases’, setting out how employers can word NDAs so they protect confidential information without preventing employees speaking out about discrimination.
22 July 2019
Extending pregnancy protection from redundancy
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.
The government is proposing to extend this protection to:
14 October 2019
Queen’s Speech
The Queen’s Speech, made before Parliament closed for the general election, committed Boris Johnson's government to introduce legislation to ‘make work fairer’ and ‘support those working hard’.
Good work plan – no new legislation was proposed but the accompanying briefing notes indicate this administration would pick up on consultations carried out by the previous Conservative government. These included tackling one-sided flexibility that benefits employers rather than workers, and creating a single body to oversee and improve the enforcement of employment rights (see ‘19 July 2019 – good work plan: consultations on parental leave and flexibility’ and ‘16 July 2019 – Good work plan: consultation on single enforcement body’ above).
NMW – at the Tory Party conference in September, Chancellor Sajid Javid promised to raise the National Living Wage (currently £8.21 an hour) to £10.50 within five years and lower the qualifying age from 25 to 21 years. The briefing notes reiterate this intention and promise further details in the next Budget (originally due on 6 November).
Tips – a new Employment (Allocation of Tips) Bill (to apply in England, Wales and Scotland but not Northern Ireland) was proposed to ensure workers get tips in full, and employers distribute them in a ‘fair and transparent’ way. The Bill would be accompanied by a statutory Code of Practice. A consultation on tips was launched in 2016.
Immigration – the Immigration and Social Security Co-ordination Bill would be introduced to end free movement and make EU citizens arriving after January 2021 subject to the same new points-based immigration system as those arriving from elsewhere in the world (citizens from the Irish Republic will still be allowed to enter and remain in the UK as now).
Pensions – a Pensions Schemes Bill was proposed which would ‘provide greater powers to tackle irresponsible management of private pension schemes’.
29 October 2019
Mandatory references
Business secretary Andrea Leadsom put forward proposals for ‘enhanced protections for workers facing workplace discrimination’ on this date. The proposals include whether employers should be required to provide a basic reference for all departing employees, in order to prevent withholding references being used as a bargaining chip to threaten workers.
The government press release refers to a wider package of measures ‘cracking down on misuse of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) and workplace discrimination’ announced previously (see 21 July 2019 – Misuse of non-disclosure agreements’ above) but does not include a consultation document or draft legislation.
Executive pay gap reporting in force
From this date, regulations made under the Companies Act 2006 require UK listed companies with more than 250 UK employees to report annually on the pay gap between their chief executive and their average UK worker.
The first reports are due in 2020.
25 January 2019
Consultation on extending pregnancy protection
The government has produced a consultation on extending discrimination protection during pregnancy and maternity. The proposals build on evidence of discrimination against pregnant women and new parents from BEIS, the Equality and Human Rights Commission, and the Taylor report, and recommendations from the Women and Equalities Select Committee.
The proposals include extending the ‘protected period’ to six months after the new mother returns to work – currently the special protections against redundancy finish when maternity leave ends, or two weeks after pregnancy ends for women not entitled to maternity leave. Giving parents returning from adoption or shared parental leave the same rights is also proposed.
30 March 2019
EU settlement scheme fully open
A scheme to protect EU citizens’ right to remain in the UK once freedom of movement ends following Brexit will be fully open to applications from 30 March 2019, having been piloted since January.
EU citizens who have already been in the UK for five years may apply for settled status, while those who have been here for under five years can apply for pre-settled status. All EU citizens will need to apply, even if they already have permanent residency in the UK, and applications can be made up until the end of transitional period under the withdrawal agreement. The new status is not dependent on employment.
The process is fully digital, can be completed on a smart phone, and is free from 30 March (previously there was a £65 charge).
From January 2021 a new immigration system will apply to EU and non-EU citizens.
30 March 2019
Gender pay gap reports (public sector)
‘Specified public authorities’, including government departments, the armed forces, local authorities, the NHS and state schools, with 250 or more employees, are required to publish their gender pay gap reports by this date, based on data gathered on 31 March each year.
The requirements for the reports, under the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties and Public Authorities) Regulations 2017, are largely the same as those that apply to private and voluntary sector organisations of the same size.
31 March 2019
Modern slavery statement ‘naming and shaming’.
The Home Office will be conducting an audit of annual anti-slavery statements and publishing a list of businesses that have failed to publish their statement for the 2018 financial year by 31 March 2019 deadline.
The ‘naming and shaming’ is seen as a prelude to strengthening the reporting requirements under the legislation and, possibly, introducing sanctions for non-compliance.
1 April 2019
National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage
Chancellor Philip Hammond announced in the Budget 2018 new National Minimum/Living Wage from 1 April 2019 as:
- Workers aged 25 and over - £8.21 an hour (National Living Wage)
- Workers aged 21-24 - £7.70 an hour
- Development rate for workers aged 18-20 - £6.15 an hour
- Young workers rate for workers aged 16-17 - £4.35 an hour
- Apprentice rate (workers under 19 or in first year of apprenticeship) - £3.90 an hour.
4 April 2019
Gender pay gap reports (private and voluntary sectors)
Private and voluntary sector employers in England, Wales and Scotland with at least 250 employees are required to publish information about the differences in pay and bonuses between men and women in their workforce, based on a ‘snapshot’ date of 5 April each year, under the Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2017. The first set of reports was published in 2018, and the second reports are due by 4 April 2019.
Similar reporting requirements apply to larger public sector employers.
Provisions under the Northern Irish Employment Act 2016 mirror these, except they include fines of up to £5,000 for non-compliance, and a requirement to report on ethnicity and disability pay gaps, as well as gender.
6 April 2019
Good work plan: employer penalties for breaches
The government’s ‘Good work plan’, published in December 2018, made a commitment to increase the penalties for employers that repeatedly breach their employment law obligations. Tribunals have the power to impose a £5,000 ‘aggravated breach’ penalty on employers losing cases, and from 6 April 2019, the maximum limit on these penalties will rise to £20,000.
6 April 2019
Pay slip changes
Two important changes to the Employment Rights Act 1996, affecting pay slip information, will come into force on 6 April:
- Employers must include the total number of hours worked where the pay varies according the hours worked, for example under variable hours or zero hours contracts.
- Payslips must be given to ‘workers’ and not just employees.
6 April 2019
Compensation limits
Tribunal compensation limits increase from 6 April 2019. The new rates are:
- Limit on guaranteed payments – £29
- Limit on a week’s pay – £525
- Maximum basic award for unfair dismissal and statutory redundancy payment – £15,750
- Minimum basic award for unfair dismissal – £6,408
- Maximum compensatory award for unfair dismissal – £86,444
For more information and levels of other rates, see Statutory rates and compensation limits.
On the same date, the Vento bands for calculating injury to feelings awards in discrimination claims for England and Wales increased as follows:
- Lower band £900-£8,800
- Middle band £8,800-£26,300
- Upper band £26,300-£44,000.
6 April 2019
Statutory sick pay rate
Statutory sick pay (SSP) rises from £92.05 to £94.25 on 6 April 2019.
The lower earnings limit rises from £116 to £118 on the same date.
7 April 2019
Statutory maternity, paternity etc rates
Statutory maternity (SMP), paternity (SPP), adoption (SAP) and shared parental pay (ShPP) rises from £145.18 to £148.68 a week from 7 April 2019.
The lower earnings limit rises from £116 to £118 on the same date.
20 May 2019
WEC pregnancy and maternity redundancy protection Bill
Women and Equalities Committee (WEC) chair Maria Miller introduced on this date a Bill to extend protection against redundancy for pregnant women and mothers. The Pregnancy and Maternity (Redundancy Protection) Bill 2019 would have prohibited redundancy during, and for six months after, pregnancy and maternity leave, except in certain circumstances.
The Bill followed a Department for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) consultation on the same issue (see '25 January 2019 - Consultation on extending pregnancy protection' above) and research which found that one in nine women had been dismissed, or felt forced to resign, after returning from maternity leave, but did not have government backing.
The government published a response to its consultation on 22 July 2019 (see '22 July 2019 - Extending pregnancy protection from redundancy' below). Parliament announced on 10 October 2019 that the WEC Bill had failed to complete its passage through Parliament and will make no further progress.
29 May 2019
Proposed expansion of shortage occupation list
The Migration Advisory Committee (MAC), which advises the government on immigration matters, has recommended increasing the shortage occupation list to cover around 9% of jobs in the labour market (including nurses, computer programmers, web designers, and chefs working in food takeaways) instead of the 1% the list currently covers. The shortage occupation list allows employers to offer work to non-EU nationals without carrying out a resident labour market test.
The MAC recommendations follow a full review of the shortage occupation list and acknowledges the increasing difficulty employers face in recruiting skilled employees in a shrinking labour market. Its review related to the current immigration system and the MAC has suggested a further review will be required post-Brexit.
11 July 2019
Consultation on sexual harassment
The Government Equalities Office has published a consultation on whether the current laws designed to protect workforces from sexual harassment at work are adequate.
The consultation asks:
- how to ensure organisations take all possible steps to prevent harassment
- whether there should be a mandatory duty on organisations to protect workers from harassment, accompanied by a statutory Code of Practice
- whether employers should be required to monitor and report externally on preventing and dealing with instances of sexual harassment
- how to strengthen the law on third-party harassment
- whether interns and volunteers are adequately protected
- whether there should be a timeframe longer than the current three months for bringing a harassment, discriminations or victimisation claim in a tribunal.
15 July 2019
Consultation on extension of sick pay to lowest paid
The government has produced ‘proposals to reduce ill-health related job loss’ aimed at encouraging employers to take early action on long-term health conditions and improve access to cost-effective occupational health. The proposals include:
- changing the legal framework so that employees would be able to request workplace modifications for health reasons without being disabled within the definition of the Equality Act 2010 (employers would be able to refuse such requests for business reasons)
- extending SSP to those below the Lower Earnings Limit by paying it as a proportion of employees’ wages, paying a proportion of SSP during a phased return to work, and increasing fines for non-payment of SSP
- increasing market capacity for, and improving the quality and value of, occupational health provision
- increasing fines for non-payment of SSP, and putting the new single labour market enforcement body in charge of enforcement.
16 July 2019
Good work plan: consultation on single enforcement body
The government has put forward proposals to create a new single enforcement body for employment rights responsible for:
- enforcing the payment of the national minimum wage
- tackling labour exploitation and modern slavery
- safeguarding holiday payments for vulnerable workers
- ensuring agency workers are not underpaid.
Matthew Taylor, whose ‘Good work’ review for the government suggested the single enforcement body, takes on the role of Director of Labour Market Enforcement for one year from 1 August 2019.
19 July 2019
Good work plan: consultations on parental leave and flexibility
The government has published a consultation document, stemming from its ‘Good work plan’, on strengthening support for working families. The consultation covers three aspects of protecting parents at work:
- parental leave and pay
- neonatal leave and pay
- transparency of flexible working and family related leave and pay policies.
The second part of the consultation proposes a new ‘day one’ right to neonatal leave for parents of seriously ill babies needing two weeks or more hospital care. The amount of leave will be capped and paid at the statutory rate subject to the qualifying conditions for paternity pay.
The third part asks whether employers with 250 or more staff should be required to publish details of their family friendly policies, including flexible working arrangements, on their websites, and whether job ads should be required to state an organisation’s approach to flexibility.
The consultation on parental leave and pay closes on 29 November, and the consultations on neonatal leave and pay, and transparency on flexible working, close on 11 October 2019.
On the same date, the government launched a consultation on addressing unfair flexible working practices, seeking views on proposals from the Low Pay Commission on providing:
- a right to reasonable notice of working hours
- appropriate compensation for workers’ shifts cancelled without reasonable notice.
21 July 2019
Misuse of non-disclosure agreements
Theresa May’s government made a commitment on this date to legislate to tackle the misuse of confidentiality clauses (also known as non-disclosure agreements, or NDAs) in employment contracts and settlement agreements, including those being used to cover up sexual harassment and racial discrimination.
In its ‘measures to prevent misuse’ document, the government undertook to legislate so that:
- NDAs cannot be used to stop disclosures to the police, and legal and health care professionals
- the limits on NDAs are clearly set out in contracts and settlement agreements
- the independent legal advice received by those agreeing to clauses is enhanced.
The government also said it would ensure that enforcement measures for unlawful NDAs appear in written particulars and settlement agreements, and produce guidance for legal professionals on drafting confidentiality clauses. It is already the law that an employee must receive legal advice before signing an NDA, and that an NDA can’t prevent whistleblowing ‘in the public interest’.
The measures are in response to a consultation conducted earlier in the year. The government planned to legislate 'when Parliamentary time allows' and in response to its own consultation on the issue (see 11 July 2019 – Consultation on sexual harassment’ above).
On 18 October 2019, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) published guidance on the ‘use of confidentiality agreements in discrimination cases’, setting out how employers can word NDAs so they protect confidential information without preventing employees speaking out about discrimination.
22 July 2019
Extending pregnancy protection from redundancy
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.
The government is proposing to extend this protection to:
- pregnant employees, once they have told their employer of their pregnancy
- employees returning from maternity or adoption leave within the previous six months
- parents returning from shared parental leave (although how the limits on this right will operate is still to be worked out).
14 October 2019
Queen’s Speech
The Queen’s Speech, made before Parliament closed for the general election, committed Boris Johnson's government to introduce legislation to ‘make work fairer’ and ‘support those working hard’.
Good work plan – no new legislation was proposed but the accompanying briefing notes indicate this administration would pick up on consultations carried out by the previous Conservative government. These included tackling one-sided flexibility that benefits employers rather than workers, and creating a single body to oversee and improve the enforcement of employment rights (see ‘19 July 2019 – good work plan: consultations on parental leave and flexibility’ and ‘16 July 2019 – Good work plan: consultation on single enforcement body’ above).
NMW – at the Tory Party conference in September, Chancellor Sajid Javid promised to raise the National Living Wage (currently £8.21 an hour) to £10.50 within five years and lower the qualifying age from 25 to 21 years. The briefing notes reiterate this intention and promise further details in the next Budget (originally due on 6 November).
Tips – a new Employment (Allocation of Tips) Bill (to apply in England, Wales and Scotland but not Northern Ireland) was proposed to ensure workers get tips in full, and employers distribute them in a ‘fair and transparent’ way. The Bill would be accompanied by a statutory Code of Practice. A consultation on tips was launched in 2016.
Immigration – the Immigration and Social Security Co-ordination Bill would be introduced to end free movement and make EU citizens arriving after January 2021 subject to the same new points-based immigration system as those arriving from elsewhere in the world (citizens from the Irish Republic will still be allowed to enter and remain in the UK as now).
Pensions – a Pensions Schemes Bill was proposed which would ‘provide greater powers to tackle irresponsible management of private pension schemes’.
29 October 2019
Mandatory references
Business secretary Andrea Leadsom put forward proposals for ‘enhanced protections for workers facing workplace discrimination’ on this date. The proposals include whether employers should be required to provide a basic reference for all departing employees, in order to prevent withholding references being used as a bargaining chip to threaten workers.
The government press release refers to a wider package of measures ‘cracking down on misuse of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) and workplace discrimination’ announced previously (see 21 July 2019 – Misuse of non-disclosure agreements’ above) but does not include a consultation document or draft legislation.
The contents of this page are for reference purposes only and do not constitute legal advice. Independent legal advice should be sought in relation to any specific legal matter.