April 3
– Fathers can claim up to six months’ of the mother’s maternity leave provided she returns to work, under new Additional Paternity Leave arrangements. The new right is granted to fathers of children due on or after 3 April 2011. The extra leave is in addition to the current two weeks’ paternity leave entitlement.
April 4
– Single Equality Duty for public bodies comes into force, replacing the current separate duties for race, disability and gender, and including other grounds such as sexual orientation and religious belief.
April 6
– Default retirement age set to be abolished. Employers no longer able to issue notifications for compulsory retirement using the DRA procedure. Some employers may be able to objectively justify why certain workers should retire, such as those in the police force or construction industry.
– Personal allowance for income tax for basic rate tax payers under the age of 65 will be increased by £1,000.
– Employers’ national insurance contributions increased by 1pc to 13.8pc. National Insurance Contributions will also be increase by 1pc for employees, and the primary threshold increased by £570. Threshold at which employers pay National Insurance raised by £21 per week.
– Employees of companies with fewer than 250 employees are granted statutory right to request time off for training or study. Already in place for businesses with more than 250 employees, the change means employers have to seriously consider any training requests received.
Also in April (date TBC)
– Right to request flexible working extended to parents with children under 18, one year older than present. Employees must be employed by the same business for 26 weeks or more before they are eligible.
– Bribery Act 2010 comes into force, introducing a new corporate offence of failure to prevent bribery by employees, agents, or other “associated persons” working on behalf of a business. This is unless a business can show that it has adequate anti-bribery procedures in place.
October 1
The Agency Workers Regulations 2010 will give agency workers the same basic employment conditions as permanent employees after just 12 weeks on an assignment. This will relate to pay, holidays and other conditions of employment.
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