Tel 023 9285 1111 
legislation 
National Minimum Wage: 
Current rate from 1 October 2010 
£5.93 for age 21 and over 
Age 18 - 20 £4.92 
Age 16 - 17 £3.64 
Apprentice minimum wage £2.50 (age 19 and under) 
From 1 October 2011 
£6.08 for age 21 and over 
Age 18 - 20 £4.98 
Age 16 - 17 £3.68 
Apprentice min wage £2.60 (age 19 and under) 
 
Statutory Pay: 
Maternity, Paternity & Adoption Pay £124.88 per week  
Sick pay £79.15 per week 
 
New "fit note" replaces "sick note" 
From April 6th 2010 Doctors will issue a "not fit for work" note or a "may be fit for work" note which will contain additional information on how an employee may be able to return to work with help from their employer. This should help employers reduce unnessesary long periods of sickness related absence.  
 
AWR - Are you ready? 
Temporary workers will have the right to equal treatment with regards to pay, holidays and working conditions once they have completed a 12 week qualifying period. The regulations come into force from 1 October 2011. How will this affect your business? 
We provide free assessments: info@wildrecruitment.co.uk 
 
From 3 April 2011, eligible employees will gain the right to additional paternity leave and pay (APL&P). 
 
The right will apply where: 
 
their partner is due to give birth on or after 3 April 2011 
they and/or the other adoptive parent receive notification on or after 3 April 2011 that they have been matched with a child for adoption 
Additional paternity leave (APL) will allow an employee to take up to 26 weeks' leave to care for the child. 
 
The employee will only be able to start their APL: 
 
20 or more weeks after the child's birth or placement for adoption 
once their partner has returned to work from statutory maternity leave or statutory adoption leave and/or ended their entitlement to statutory maternity or adoption pay, or maternity allowance 
 
 
Revision of employment equality law (England, Scotland & Wales) 
 
Relevant to 
All employers 
From 1 October 2010, most of the Equality Act 2010 will come into force. The Act replaces existing anti-discrimination such as the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 and the Sex Discrimination Act 1975. 
 
As an employer, your obligations will remain largely the same. However the Act does strengthen some particular aspects of equality law. As a result, you may need to reconsider some of your policies and practices. 
 
Note that the characteristics protected under equality law will remain the same as currently. These are: 
 
age 
disability 
gender reassignment, which covers transsexual people 
marriage and civil partnership 
pregnancy and maternity 
race, which includes ethnic or national origins, colour and nationality 
religion or belief 
sex 
sexual orientation 
 
Association discrimination 
Currently you mustn't discriminate against someone: 
 
because they associate with another person, and 
the discrimination is because of that other person's race, religion/belief or sexual orientation 
 
From 1 October 2010, this will also cover age, disability, gender reassignment and sex. 
 
Perception discrimination 
 
It's unlawful for a person to discriminate against an individual because that person (wrongly) believes that the individual possesses one of the following protected characteristics: age, race, religion/belief and sexual orientation. 
This will be extended to cover disability, gender reassignment and sex. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Disability discrimination 
 
Disabled people will become protected from indirect discrimination. This means that it will be unlawful to have a policy which applies to everyone but particularly disadvantages disabled people. 
 
However, you may be able to justify indirect discrimination if you can show it's a fair and reasonable way of achieving a legitimate aim. 
 
The Act also introduces protection from "discrimination arising from disability" that occurs when a disabled employee is treated unfavourably because of something connected to their disability, such as a guide dog. 
 
Pre-employment health questions 
 
The Act will limit the circumstances when you can ask health or disability-related questions during recruitment. 
 
Third-party harassment 
 
The Act will make you potentially liable for harassment of your employees by people (third parties) who are not your employees, eg customers. 
This already applies to sex but the Act will extend the protection to age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, and sexual orientation. 
 
Gender reassignment 
 
A transsexual person will now be protected even if they are not under medical supervision. In addition transsexual people will be protected from indirect discrimination. 
 
Pay discussions 
 
It will be unlawful to take action against an employee for discussing their pay in an effort to find out if there is a connection between pay and a protected characteristic. 
Retirement ages and procedures 
The law on retirement ages and retirement procedures is changing. 
Retirement ages 
There has been a default retirement age (DRA) of 65 for employers who believe they need to set a retirement age. Employers have also been able to set the retirement age above this but they could only set it below 65 if they could objectively justify it. 
 
However, the DRA is being phased out from April 2011. From 6 April 2011, no new notifications using the DRA procedures can be issued. From 6 April 2011, you will only be able to have a set retirement age if you can justify it objectively. In order to do so, you would need to show that: 
 
you were acting to further a legitimate aim of the business - eg to ensure the health and safety of employees, customers, the public, etc 
your actions to achieve that aim were appropriate and necessary - eg not to have a retirement age would endanger the health and safety of employees, customers, the public, etc 
The test of objective justification is not an easy one to pass. It would be necessary to provide evidence to defend these actions at tribunal if challenged. 
 
DRA retirements after 6 April 2011 - the statutory retirement procedure (SRP) 
To comply with the law, when you intend to retire an employee under the DRA procedures, all of the following criteria must be met: 
 
you must have notified the employee of their intended retirement date before 6 April 2011 
the employee must have reached the age of 65 or the normal retirement age - if this is higher - before 1 October 2011 
you must follow the SRP 
To comply with the law when following the SRP, you need to meet all of the following requirements: 
 
 
 
 
Before 6 April 2011, you must have notified the employee in writing of their intended retirement date (IRD) and their right to request to work beyond their IRD if they want. This means that you cannot now issue any new retirement notices under the SRP. 
If the employee makes a request to work beyond their IRD, you will have to meet with them to discuss it. 
If you wholly or partly refuse the request, the employee has the right to appeal against your decision. 
The employee has the right to be accompanied at any meeting to discuss their retirement and any subsequent appeal meeting. 
Note that if an employee requests an extension of their period of notice of retirement, you can agree to this and still rely on the SRP to enforce the retirement, as long as the extension is no more than six months. 
 
Note that it is unlawful to insist that a woman retires at a different age from a man. 
 
If you operate an employer-justified retirement age, all notifications made before 6 April 2011 continue to be valid. 
 
Beyond these transitional arrangements you will not be able to dismiss an employee on the grounds of retirement unless you can objectively justify it. 
 
Therefore, an employee will, in most cases, be able to continue working until they choose not to. 
 
However, as long as you follow a fair and reasonable procedure, you will still be able to dismiss an employee of any age on, for example, the grounds of: 
 
capability, eg where - despite you giving them opportunities to improve - their performance is not up to standard 
redundancy, ie where there is no longer work for the employee to do 
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