Forum

The Government has published four sets of new employment-related regulations as follows:

1/ The National Minimum Wage (Variation of Financial Penalty) Regulations 2014 have been published in draft form and laid before Parliament and are expected to come into force in February 2014. The regulations amend the amounts specified in section 19A of the National Minimum Wage Act 1998 which are used to calculate financial penalties for employers who have not paid their workers the national minimum wage (NMW).

2/ The Statutory Sick Pay (Maintenance of Records) (Revocation) Regulations 2014 have been laid before Parliament and will come into force on 6 April 2014. Under the regulations, employers will no longer be required to maintain records of employees relating to sickness absence and payment of statutory sick pay (SSP) from 6 April 2014.

3/ The Statutory Sick Pay Percentage Threshold (Revocations, Transitional and Saving Provisions) (Great Britain and Northern Ireland) Order 2014 has been published in draft form and is intended to come into force on 6 April 2014, subject to transitional provisions. It revokes the Percentage Threshold Scheme (PTS) provisions which provide for employers to recover certain payments of SSP.

4/ Finally, the Automatic Enrolment (Earnings Trigger and Qualifying Earnings Band) Order 2014 has been published in draft form and laid before Parliament and is due to come into force on 6 April 2014. A worker's rights under the automatic enrolment pensions framework are determined according to the category of worker into which they fall.

Out of all of those, I suggest item 3/ has potentially the largest immediate impact.

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