Sejal Raja looks at the key dates and changes in employment law coming in to force in April 2018.

Increase in family friendly rates and statutory sick pay

The level of statutory maternity, adoption, paternity and shared parental pay increases to £145.18 on 1 April.

Statutory sick pay increases to £92.05 on 1 April.

National Minimum Wage

From 1 April, the national minimum wage rates increase to:

25 and over        £7.83 per hour
21 – 24               £7.38 per hour
18 – 20               £5.90 per hour
Under 18            £4.20 per hour
Apprentice          £3.70 per hour

Gender pay gap

From 4 April, private and voluntary sector employers, with 250 or more employees are required to publish annual information on their gender pay gap.

Tribunal compensation limits

The maximum compensatory award increases to £83,682 from 6 April. Please note that the maximum award is one year’s gross pay or £83,682, whichever is the lower.

A week’s pay for the calculation of redundancy pay and a basic award is £508.

Termination payments

All payments in lieu of notice, including payments which are made where there is no payment in lieu of notice included in the contract of employment, will be subject to income tax and class 1 NICs from 6 April. Effectively, employers will be required to subject to tax that part of a termination payment equivalent to the employee’s basic pay if and to the extent that notice is not worked. The new rules apply where both payment and termination occurs on or after 6 April.

GDPR

Finally, GDPR is coming in to force on 25 May. If you require advice in relation to reviewing and making sure that your employee data is processed according to the new regime then please do not hesitate to contact us.

If you have any questions, please contact:

Sejal Raja
Partner, Head of Employment
T. 020 7227 7410
E. sejal.raja@rlb-law.com

Disclaimer

This briefing is for guidance purposes only. RadcliffesLeBrasseur accepts no responsibility or liability whatsoever for any action taken or not taken in relation to this note and recommends that appropriate legal advice be taken having regard to a client's own particular circumstances.