The UK has become the first country to offer grieving parents two weeks’ statutory paid leave. Known as Jack’s Law, the new rules will come into force in April, allowing all working parents who lose a child aged under 18 to take leave as either a single block of two weeks, or as two separate blocks of one week each across the first year after the death. Mother Lucy Herd began campaigning for reform after her son died in 2010. Her-then husband was given just three days leave.
Increased rates for family friendly leave and long-term sickness this April.
Following up from last month’s announcement regarding the minimum wage increase, the government have proposed an increase to the existing statutory rates. The Legislation will entitle employees whom qualify to a statutory payments whilst taking a period of sick leave, or ‘family friendly leave’ which includes maternity, paternity and adoption leave. The rates set will be reviewed each year and the increases will be implemented in April 2020.
Statutory maternity rates of pay are set to increase on the 5th of April.
Employees will be entitled to the weekly increased rate of £151.20, up from £148.68, the qualifying criteria will not change. What this means is that anyone whose average weekly earnings are below than this statutory rate will be entitled to receive 90% of their average weekly earnings. Pay rates for employees taking maternity or adoption leave will also be entitled to the same increase again rising to £151.20 weekly.
On the 6th April 2020, a day later statutory sick pay is set to increase, keeping in line with the first Monday of the new tax year. Employees, from this date forward, will then be entitled to £95.85 weekly. Employees will only be able to receive this increase if their earnings are above or equal to the lower earnings cap. At present this stands at £118 per week and it is expected that a new lower earnings limit is set to be announced.
Before April, companies and organisations should review the policies they have in place for statutory leave and make sure that they are all up to date. For organisations that already offer statutory minimum pay for periods of leave should by now already be familiar with how the process works and its very important that the payroll departments understands that they will need to abide by the increased rates. Failure to pay the correct amount could end in a tribunal and can be very costly.
It’s also important to understand how the new rates will impact any employee’s that are already in a period of statutory leave. When the new rates are introduced, existing payments will need to be reviewed and increased where necessary, this will ensure staff are remunerated accordingly.
As has become routine in recent years, a new set of minimum wage rates will become effective on 1 April 2020.
Prior to the New Year, the government confirmed several increases to the existing national minimum wage (NMW) rates that will be introduced in April, describing these changes as the ‘biggest ever cash boost’ for UK workers.
The existing structure, which provides separate hourly rates to staff based on separate age categories will remain intact and individuals will benefit from an hourly increase of between 4.6 and 6.5 percent, depending on their age. These new rates are as follows:
As a result of these increases, almost three million workers in Britain are set to receive a pay rise of more than four times the rate of inflation. In real terms, this should equate to an increase of around £930 a year for a full time worker who is paid in line with the National Living Wage.
It is also worth remembering that the hourly rates associated with voluntary ‘Real Living Wage’ underwent a similar increase in November 2019, meaning committed organisations are now required to pay staff the enhanced rates of £10.75 per hour in London and £9.20 for the rest of the UK.
In the lead up to April, organisations should work with their payroll department to ensure the new hourly rates are reflected in staff salaries, starting from the relevant pay reference period. Given the different age categories it is imperative that organisations double check information on employees’ dates of birth ahead of time to ensure this is correct.
For clarity’s sake, organisations should also notify staff of the pay rise ahead of time with written confirmation. This transparency is likely to be well received and could help build positive employee relations.
Whilst, there are several months until these new rates are introduced, organisations should avoid leaving preparations until the last minute. After all, failing to implement these new rates on time will place organisations in breach of national minimum wage law and could also lead to significant reputational damage.