The government has announced its intention to make some important changes to aspects of employment law now that the UK has left the EU.
Working Time Regulations
- merging ‘normal’ holiday leave with ‘additional’ holiday leave, to create one entitlement. Although the government does not say this, it may result in the calculation of holiday pay reverting to the old method (i.e. excluding commission, overtime etc).
- allowing ‘rolled-up’ holiday pay. This has been technically unlawful under EU law for some years, although the remedy for breach is limited if the rolled-up element is shown clearly on payslips.
- removing the requirement for record-keeping under the Working Time Regulations for working hours. Not that any employer has done this because of the legislation, ever.
Tupe
- removing the requirement to consult with appointed representatives when there are fewer than 50 employees in the business and fewer than 10 transferees. This is of limited impact, because of the existing micro-business exemption (meaning that consultation wasn’t required for businesses with fewer than 10 employees). So this means that where a business has between 10 and 49 employees, of whom 9 or fewer are transferring, they will also be exempted from the collective consultation rules. In reality, this can only apply where there is transfer of part of a business, not a whole business.
These are significant changes, despite my slightly snide comment about (3). No timetable has been announced, although none of the changes require primary legislation, so it could be done fairly quickly. For more information, see here.
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