Legislative Changes 6 April 2014 - a summary

6 April 2014 saw a number of employment legislation changes come into force. Below is a useful summary of the changes:

• Financial Penalties for Employers at the Employment Tribunal –an employer who has breached one or more “aggravating features” may be subject to a financial penalty. Penalties are subject to a minimum award of £100 and a maximum of £5,000. Payments made within 21 days will be discounted by 50%;
• Introduction of ACAS Early Conciliation – please see this month’s bulletin for further details.
• Statutory Discrimination Questionnaires Abolished – abolished for acts of discrimination occurring on or after 6 April 2014;
• Increases in various statutory payments – including Statutory Sick Pay from £86.70 to £87.55 per week and Statutory Maternity Pay, Statutory Paternity Pay and Statutory Adoption Pay all from £136.78 to £138.18 per week;
• Abolition of statutory sick pay threshold schemes – please see this month’s bulletin for further details;
• Amendments to whistleblowing legislation – please see this month’s bulletin for further details;
• Changes to tax system to tackle false self-employment  - part of the Government’s crack down on “false self-employment” e.g. the use of employment intermediaries to present employment situations as self-employment;
• Increases to statutory compensation limits – the limit on a week’s pay for the purposes of calculating redundancy pay and the unfair dismissal basic award increased from £450 to £464. The unfair dismissal compensatory award cap has been increased from £74,200 to £76,574;
• Increases in Employment Tribunal fees for some claims  - some claims currently categorised as “Type A” claims will be recategorised as “Type B” claims and will therefore require a higher fee (for single claimants, the issue fee will increase from £160 to £250 and the hearing fee will rise from £230 to £950). Claims recategorised as Type B claims include: equal pay claims, failure to inform or consult under TUPE, failure to allow compensatory rest under the Working Time Regulations 1998 and breach of the right to request time off for training.