Legal Ease

NEW RATES NATIONAL MINIMUM WAGE WILL COME INTO FORCE ON 1 OCTOBER 2010:

· Hourly rate for adult workers (21 years and older) increases from £5.80 to £5.93 per hour
· Hourly rate for 18 to 20 year olds (development rate) increases from £4.83 to £4.92 per hour
· Hourly rate for 16 and 17 year olds increases from £3.57 to £3.64 per hour

Please Note: - the adult rate, which currently applies to those 22 and over, is to extend to workers aged 21.

A new rate for Apprentices will also be introduced from 1 October – apprentices who are currently exempt from the National Minimum Wage will receive a minimum wage to be set at £2.50 per hour. It will apply to apprentices who are under 19 or those aged 19 and over who are in their first year of apprenticeship.

EQUALITY ACT WILL COME INTO FORCE ON 1 OCTOBER 2010

The Equality Act 2010 consolidates existing equality law into a single piece of legislation. It brings together nine existing major pieces of discrimination legislation (including Sex, Race and Disability) into a single act and creates a number of new rights and remedies to protect employees from discrimination. It defines direct discrimination as less favourable treatment on the ground of a protected characteristic and establishes indirect discrimination as the application of a provision, criterion or practice that is discriminatory in relation to a protected characteristic.

The Act introduces two completely new types of discrimination:

Combined Discrimination
This will allow claims to be brought by an employee who has been directly discriminated against because of a combination of two protected characteristics e.g. race/age.

Detriment Arising From Disability
This replaces the concept of “disability-related discrimination”. A detriment arising from disability occurs when the employer treats an employee in a detrimental way because of something that is a consequence of their disability. For example, dismissing an employee with a poor attendance when their high absence record was caused by their disability. This would be unlawful unless the dismissal could be justified as a “proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim” or the employer could not reasonably have been expected to know of the disability.

The Act introduces a number of reforms, including:

· Prohibiting pre-employment health enquiries except in limited circumstances (for example, establishing whether the applicant will be able to “carry out a function that is intrinsic to the work concerned”).

· Extending the scope for employers to take “positive action” as a proportionate means of enabling or encouraging people with a protected characteristic to overcome or minimise disadvantage, or participate in activity where they are underrepresented e.g. selecting a female candidate to join an all male management team but only when choosing between two equally qualified candidates.

· The provision to make regulations requiring employers with at least 250 employees to publish information relating to the differences in pay between men and women (expected to come into effect in 2013).

· Extending employer liability for harassment to cover harassment of employees by third parties (e.g. customers, clients and suppliers) where this occurs on at least two occasions and the employer has failed to take reasonably practical steps to stop it.

· Making ‘gagging’ clauses, which prevent employees from discussing their pay, unenforceable. Although secrecy clauses will not be banned, they will be unenforceable against employees who make or request a “relevant pay disclosure”. The disclosure must be made with the possibility of pay discrimination in mind.

· Employment tribunals will have the power to make recommendations that benefit the wider workforce, not just the claimant, in a successful discrimination claim.

PRACTICAL STEPS TO TAKE BEFORE THE EQUALITY ACT 2010 COMES INTO FORCE

· Review your business’s existing policies and procedures regarding discrimination and harassment (including grievance procedures) and decide whether they should be updated – if changes are necessary amend and communicate to all employees.

· Ensure that all directors, managers and employees in your business are aware of the changes and how they are realized though your policies.

· Provide appropriate training where necessary.

If you require help with implementing or amending your Policies, please contact us on 0845 450 0898 or email us at helpline@firsthruk.com.