Pay Governance

This afternoon the Chancellor announced that the Government is going to cover up to 80% of the current wage level of an employee who is designated as a “furloughed” worker, due to the Coronavirus pandemic, provided they are kept on the employer’s payroll. There will be a ceiling of £2,500 a month on salaries to which this applies. Employers can still top up salaries above this level if they choose to.

The recently appointed Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, delivered his first Budget on behalf of the Government on 11 March 2020. The Budget announcements reflect a number of the pledges made in the Conservative Party’s 2019 Election Manifesto (Manifesto), but has also clearly been shaped by concerns regarding, and against the backdrop of, the COVID-19 Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. A summary of the key Budget announcements for employers and employees is set out below.

The National Minimum Wage (“NMW”) legislation is the responsibility of the Department for Business, Energy, Industry and Strategy (“BEIS”). New legislation has just been announced which will result in significant changes that all employers will need to understand and plan for.

The government recently published a number of different consultations under the banner of the Good Work Plan. This included a consultation on proposals to create a single organisation, responsible for enforcing employment and worker rights such as National Minimum Wage, Holiday Pay, Agency Worker rights and potentially Sick Pay. Currently, a number of worker rights are governed by separate bodies, such as HMRC, and the enforcement regimes are not consistent.

As part of the next stage of the Government’s Good Work Plan, a consultation has been announced proposing the establishment of a new single enforcement body (SEB) for employment/worker rights.

In this webinar, with experts from PwC, we discuss progress with regulatory reform, delve into the complexity of the current legislation and provide practical advice on how to manage risk as the legislation evolves (including the recent NMW consultation), all brought to life with a number of case studies.

We wanted to bring to your attention a recent development around the “naming and shaming” regime which publishes names of those employers who breach National Minimum Wage (NMW).

The government’s Good Work Plan runs to 68 pages, takes forward 51 policy recommendations and for any industry with a large workforce will mean significant change which creates costs and risk.

Over the last few years there’s been a increased focus on Holiday Pay given a number of Employment Appeal Tribunal cases that have covered this area. More recently the Government has changed the reference period and has recommended changes in the rules on holiday pay compliance.

We are delighted that at the Employment Tribunal held on Monday 4th February the Judge ruled in favour of Middlesbrough Football Club's (MFC) appeal against their National Minimum Wage (NMW) Notice of Underpayment.

From April 2019 UK employers are required to provide payslips (in either physical or electronic format) to all of their workers and also to record the hours on payslips for those workers whose pay varies according to the amount of time worked.

n its long awaited response to the Taylor report, the government announced on 18 December 2018 one of the most significant, varied and numerous workplace reforms seen in the UK in over 20 years. In amongst the 51 recommendations published, the government has made explicit references to changes in National Minimum Wage, Employment Status and Holiday Pay.

n its long awaited response to the Taylor report, the government announced on 18 December 2018 one of the most significant, varied and numerous workplace reforms seen in the UK in over 20 years. In amongst the 51 recommendations published, the government has made explicit references to changes in National Minimum Wage, Employment Status and Holiday Pay.

As an early Christmas present to us all, the Government has today issued its Good Work Plan setting out how it intends to implement the reviews undertaken earlier this year following the Taylor report. At the same time, it has published its response to a 2018 report from the Director of Labour Market Enforcement, Sir David Metcalf.

In Royal Mencap Society v Tomlinson-Blake, the Court of Appeal considered whether workers are entitled to be paid the National Minimum Wage (NMW) for “sleep-in” shifts at work. The case also has wider implications with respect to how the judgment was arrived at, and is therefore of interest to all employers.

he latest list of National Minimum Wage (NMW) breaches was published on Friday 6th July by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). It includes nearly 240 employers with total arrears of £1.44m and record fines of £1.97m. The increase in these figures reflects HMRC’s investment in its NMW enforcement activity over the past 18 months.

The Government’s response to the Taylor Review (The Good Work Plan) alongside Sir David Metcalf’s publication of his Labour Market Enforcement Strategy for 2018/19 and a number of recent Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) decisions have all brought holiday pay right to the top of the agenda for employers across the UK over the last few months.