Emergency legislation promised by the Government on extending sick pay has now been passed.
The Statutory Sick Pay (Coronavirus) (Suspension of Waiting Days and General Amendment) Regulations 2020 came into force on 28 March 2020.
These Regulations remove the need for employees to serve three waiting days before they become eligible for statutory sick pay meaning that it is now payable from day one, rather than day four, where the reason for the absence is coronavirus sickness or self-isolation. The Regulations include a back-dating provision, so that any periods of incapacity which started on or after 13 March 2020 will no longer serve waiting days.
Other eligibility criteria have not changed, meaning that workers still need to earn at least the lower earnings limit on average, which is currently £118 per week but will increase to £120 per week from 6th April 2020.
In addition, the Working Time Regulations 1998 have been amended to allow for more flexibility when dealing with annual leave remaining in this leave year. Due to circumstances, workers may struggle to take their remaining entitlement before the end of the leave year. This may be because:
- they’re self-isolating or are too sick to take holiday before the end of their leave year
- they’ve been temporarily sent home as there’s no work (‘laid off’ or ‘put on furlough’)
- they’ve had to continue working and could not take paid holiday
The Regulations now give workers a statutory right to carry leave over into the next two leave years after this one. This only applies to the first 4 weeks of leave under the Regulations (Regulation 13 leave). The other 1.6 weeks of statutory minimum leave is already capable of being carried over to the next leave year with agreement from the employer and the new laws do not change this. This means that all statutory minimum annual leave accrued in this leave year is now capable of being carried over, in the following way:
- 4 weeks (legal entitlement to be carried over to next two leave years)
- 1.6 weeks (employers can agree that this be carried over to the next leave year)
- Enhanced contractual entitlement (at employers’ discretion)
The rules on pay in lieu of untaken annual leave have also been amended so that, when employment terminates, the holiday pay payable will include anything carried over and not taken due to the coronavirus carry over. The law still does not allow pay in lieu of statutory minimum entitlement at any time other than termination.
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