Member Article

Employment law predictions for 2015

Employment law predictions for 2015 from Christopher Davies, professional support lawyer at Gateley LLP.

“Towards the end of 2014, we were in an unusual situation where an employment law case was front page news. Every news programme was talking about holiday pay calculations and overtime, following the ruling in Bear Scotland Ltd and others v Fulton and others. In response, on the 8 January, the Government introduced the Deduction from Wages (Limitation) Regulations 2014, capping the liability for holiday pay shortfalls that have unknowingly accrued over the years, due to the exclusion of overtime from holiday pay calculations. From 1 July, generally all claims for unlawful deductions from wages will be limited to monies owing from the last two years. This is good news for employers, but it could possibly lead to a peak in claims being issued in the first half of this year before the cap becomes effective.

Staying with the holiday pay theme, the long awaited case of Lock v British Gas Trading Limited is due to be heard on 4 February. In this case, the European Court of Justice has already directed that the employee should not lose out on commission when taking holiday. It will now be for the Employment Judge to decide how that can be achieved under the Working Time Regulations 1998, and if so how it can be achieved.

The very next day, the Advocate General is due to give his opinion in the landmark ‘Woolworths case’ – USDAW v Ethel Austin and Lyttle v Bluebird. This case fundamentally changed UK law by requiring employers to carry out collective consultation when there are 20 redundancies in a 90-day period, rather than 20 redundancies ‘at an establishment’ in a 90-day period. Multi-site employers throughout the country will be anxious to see if the ‘establishment’ reference is again reinstated.

In March 2015, the Court of Appeal will be asked to decide how a day’s pay should be calculated for a salaried employee. If it is based on calendar days, it is just 1/365th of their annual wage but, if based on working days, it can be as much as 1/260th of their pay. It is an issue that could have an impact in a wide variety of situations, but in Hartley v King Edward VI College it is being claimed that too much money was deducted from teachers’ wages following a day’s strike.

April 2015 looks like it will be a very busy month for HR, with the introduction of the new system of shared parental leave. This has been described as the biggest change to family-friendly legislation for decades. Qualifying employees may agree with their partners to share statutory rights to time off and pay, in order to care for their child. Parents will be able to decide who will take the leave and pay, or may opt to take the time off together. However, there are technical procedural requirements and a number of questions that still remain regarding the take up of the new leave rights.

In addition, further family-friendly changes will see adoption rights improved, as they are brought more into line with maternity rights, with ordinary unpaid parental leave extended so that it can be taken up to the child’s 18th birthday, rather than the child’s 5th birthday.

April is also the month when Employment Tribunal compensation limits will be increased and all statutory payments revised, including maternity pay.

Finally in May, the result of the General Election could be decisive in respect of a number of employment rights. These include whether the Employment Tribunal Fee system will remain in place in its current form.

All in all, the first half of 2015, will certainly keep HR managers and owner-managed businesses on their toes when it comes to all things employment related!“

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Gateley LLP .