|
Tuesday, 26 January 2010 12:30 |
As the end of January fast approaches this email update takes a look at what the legal timetable has in store for employers in the forthcoming weeks and what’s on the horizon post April.
Money Matters - Every little helps!
It would seem that the recession does have a silver lining – as a result of The Employment Rights (Revision of Limits) Order 2009, for the first time ever, the maximum compensatory award for unfair dismissal will actually decrease from £66,200 to £65,300 and will take effect for events giving rise to the entitlement to compensation or payment which occur on or after 1st February 2010. Likewise, the daily guarantee payment follows suit reducing from £21.50 per day to £21.20 on the same date, but there will be no change to the cap of £380 for a week’s pay for calculations of redundancy pay and basic awards. Whilst these decreases are certainly welcomed, we at Jaluch would remind readers that a more effective cost saving approach is to minimise the risk of tribunal claims in the first place by following policies and procedures and avoiding discrimination issues!
Continuing this theme, it is also expected that the standard rate of statutory sick pay will remain the same at £79.15 a week, instead of increasing in April as it has in past years. This will coincide with the proposed introduction of the “fit note” to replace the “sick note”. However, we at Jaluch would suggest that some doctors seem to be ahead of the game as we have already seen evidence of these in practice since the New Year. Needless to say we will review the impact of this particular change on managing absence in the months to come.
Maternity pay is however expected to increase to £124.88 from the 6th April this year.
Time off for Training
Our main focus for this email update is the proposed introduction of the right to request time off for training for those employees who work for organisations of 250 employees or more (with the intention of extending this to employees in all organisations from April 2011 onwards). This is expected to come into force on 6th April 2010, but with talk of a general election in our midst watch this space for further clarification on this.
The good news is that there will be no need to get to grips with any new procedures as the same process for the right to request flexible working will apply. Therefore, as is normal practice, there is the same obligation on the employer to seriously consider the employee’s request for time off work for training purposes, to follow the specified procedure to the letter and to base any decision to reject the request on one or more prescribed business reasons. Likewise, employees will only be able to make one request in any 12 month period.
You may be asking what ‘power’ this gives Joe Bloggs to pursue his long-held passion for creating paper-maché models whilst there is a business to run, but rest assured the object of the legislation is to encourage the development of skills which benefit both the effectiveness of the individual and business productivity and performance - so unless you are in the paper-maché model industry, you are likely to have a legitimate business reason to refuse the request!
And no doubt the next question on everyone’s lips will be whether the employer will be required to finance the training. The answer is no - there will be no requirement to fund such training, merely to ‘release’ employees for the time to participate in the training - although there is nothing to stop you funding training if you wish, particularly if you have policies already in place to support training and development which will benefit both the individual and the organisation.
Perhaps the main challenge employers will face when considering requests is that employees can request the type of training they see as appropriate to developing their skills which can take the format of accredited to non-accredited courses, training on employer’s premises or distance learning, to name a few, all of which will have different implications for balancing the working day and the individual’s and their colleagues’ workloads and for employers not to fall foul of the Working Time Regulations, etc if individuals are required to make up the ‘lost time’ they are ‘released’ for training.
In reality, we predict that there is unlikely to be a mad rush by employees to take this up – for those organisations affected first many may already provide development opportunities through formal policies and those who might not have this luxury have a year to prepare. We would even go so far as to suggest this may prove to offer a solution to retain staff at a time when business may still be slow for organisations as an alternative to lay off or short time working options?
If you would like any assistance with reviewing your training and development policies, discussing a request received for time off for training in due course, or with any other employment related issue please do not hesitate to get in touch: Call us on 0207 152 4090 / 01425 479888 / 01189 349845 or contact us .
 |
News 
