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April 2018 – Employment Law Update

Nicola Brand

Was anyone else singing ‘April Showers’ as they hopped over puddles coming into work this morning? Just me?

Well, along with the rainfall that April inevitably brings, it is also comes with some key employment law updates. I have summarised these in a handy table below:

1 April Statutory maternity/paternity/adoption/shared parental leave pay all increase to £145.18 per week

National Living Wage increases to £7.83 per hour (for workers aged 25+); and

National Minimum Wage increases as follows:

  • Apprentices £3.70 per hour
  • 16/17 years old£4.20 per hour
  • 18 – 20 years old£5.90 per hour
  • 21 – 24 years old£7.38
4 April Gender Pay Gap Reporting had to be completed for all private sector employers
6 April
  • Statutory sick pay (SSP) increases to £92.05 per week
  • A week’s pay (for purposes of calculating redundancy pay) increases to £508
  • Maximum compensatory award for unfair dismissal claims increases to £83,682 (where the date of termination is on or after 6 April 2018)
  • Change to taxation of termination payments

Whilst the majority of these changes are ‘the norm’ in April and we expect to see increases in minimum wage, SSP etc, there are two ‘stand out’ additions:

  1. Gender Pay Gap Reporting.

It is finally here! We understood in 2017 that from 4 April 2018, companies employing over 250 employees would have to publish statutory calculations on an annual basis showing how large the pay gap is between their male and female employees.

These reportings are all submitted through, and published on a gov.uk website. I have pasted the link below in case you want to check how your favourite supermarkets compare!

https://gender-pay-gap.service.gov.uk/Viewing/search-results

  1. 2.Change to taxation of termination payments.

The change relates to how pay in lieu of notice (PILON) is treated in termination payments.

Up until 6 April 2018 it had been the case that where there was a PILON clause in an employment contract the PILON was paid as a separate payment to the termination payment which was tax free (up to £30,000), and that where there was no PILON clause in an employment contract the payment could be included in the termination payment and as such, be paid tax free (subject to the £30,000 limit).

As of 6 April 2018, ALL notice pay is to be subject to tax and national insurance contributions regardless of whether the employment contract contains a PILON clause.

Don’t worry if you are expecting payment from a pre-6 April 2018 termination! These will still fall under the old rules.