The government has published The Good Work Plan April 2020, which is designed to implement the proposals of employment reforms which are due to come into effect in April 2020. The primary purpose is to ensure that individuals have better access to, and a better understanding of, their employment relationships.
Statement of Written Particulars
There will be a new requirement for you, as employers, to provide a more comprehensive statement of written particulars or contract of employment. You will also have to provide these statements to workers and not just employees. In addition, the new statement must cover more terms and must be issued on the first day of employment, unlike currently, you have 8 weeks to issue your contracts.
HMRC Clamping Down
The Good Work Plan has also made a commitment to further align the tribunal assessment of employment status with HMRC’s. Currently there are three categories of employment status in the tribunal forum: employee, worker and self-employed, while as far as HMRC is currently concerned there are only two, as it does not recognise ‘worker’ status. This can at times cause confusion for both the company and the individual.
Tribunal Claims
There will be an introduction of sanctions levied onto employers who have lost a second tribunal case on similar grounds to a previous claim. For example, if a company loses a claim for a failure to make reasonable adjustments and then proceeds to act unlawfully in the same way again, a tribunal will have the power to impose a financial sanction on the company.
Continuity of Service
You will no longer be able to rely on a one-week gap to break continuity of service. The required time to break continuity of service will be increased to four weeks. This is to reduce employers abusing the system by dismissing employees and then immediately re-engaging them to reset the clock on their employment rights, such as unfair dismissal. This means employees who are engaged for sporadic periods will have a greater opportunity to build up service-related rights and you may be required to change your business practices accordingly. There is currently no implementation date for this change.
Fixed Working and Holidays
There will also be a new right available to workers and employees that after 26 weeks of service, they are able to request a fixed working pattern if they are dissatisfied with their current ad hoc arrangement.
There is an update on how you should calculate holiday pay, with the reference period for the calculation to be increased from 12 to 52 weeks. This is aimed at ensuring seasonal workers, who have peaks and troughs in active service, receive a more reflective level of holiday pay throughout the year.
Whilst 2020 may seem like a long way off, you may want to use this time to ensure you are ready as a business for the new legislation. However, we will give you more detail on the changes as it becomes available and will ensure that your business is able to meet its new obligations.
Contact Us
If you think you may need advice on The Good Work Plan April 2020 or how you will need to prepare for the changes in April 2020, then please call us on 01706 565332 or email info@metishr.co.uk
Metis HR is a professional HR Consultancy based in the North West of England supporting clients across the country. We specialise in providing outsourced HR services to small and medium-sized businesses. Call us now on 01706 565332 to discuss how we may help you.
