Changes in Employment Law that you should be aware of

National minimum wage rate increases

Each October the national minimum wage rates are increased. Additionally, this year there will be a change in the age classification for the adult minimum wage band. The adult worker rate now includes 21 year olds where previously this band started at age 22. This year also sees the introduction of the apprentice minimum wage for apprentices under 19 or apprentices 19 or over in the first year of their apprenticeships.

The rates and new age bands are as follows

	New minimum rate per hour
Adult workers (age 21 and above)	£5.93
Workers aged 18 to 20	£4.92
Workers aged 16 to 17	£3.64
Apprentices under 19, or apprentices 19 and over in first year of apprenticeship	£2.50

Single Equality Act introduced

This important piece of legislation will harmonise and replace previous legislation promoting equality and whilst employer’s obligations remain largely the same, the Act will now make it easier for employers and employees to understand their legal rights and obligations.

The Act will introduce a number of new employment measures and employers are urged to check their policies and procedures are reviewed in light of the changes.

Do you have an employee who will be 65 in October 2011? Can you force them to retire?

With the recent abolition of the default retirement age, employers need to be aware that they will be unable to lawfully retire employees at 65 after 30 September 2011 unless they can objectively justify operating a compulsory retirement age. As it stands, the law states that notification of retirement must be given between 6 and 12 months before the intended retirement date.

Therefore, it would be sensible to identify now from your workforce if you have any employees who are reaching the default retirement age in the next 12 months up to 30 September 2011 to ensure you will still be able to lawfully retire them.

The statutory retirement procedure will be repealed from 6 April 2011 so no new notices of retirement can be issued under this procedure from this date.

Therefore, provided notification of their retirement is given by 5 April 2011 and they will retire before the 30 September 2011, then you can still follow the statutory retirement procedure and retire employees lawfully without running the risk of discriminating on the grounds of age. However, please remember that you have a duty to consider any request to work beyond retirement age.

For an employee who turns 65 on or after 1 October 2011, you will be unable to terminate their employment by reason of retirement unless you can objectively justify operating a compulsory retirement age - that is that you must be able to show that it is a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim.

Once the statutory retirement procedure has been abolished, you will only be able to rely on one of the potentially fair reasons for dismissal; capability, conduct, redundancy, illegality or some other substantial reason and ensure you follow a fair procedure under your contractual disciplinary and dismissal procedures.