ACAS has updated its guidance on the following: Vaccine: getting the Coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine for work (available here).  The Guidance now includes advice on: how to offer support to staff that are getting the vaccine; what employers should do if they feel it is important for staff to receive the   vaccine; and how to resolve…
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Increase in National Living and Minimum Wage – 1 April 2021 As we updated you in our December 2020 Newsletter Government reforms (3): Increase in national living and minimum wage, the National Living Wage, which currently only applies to workers aged 25 or over, increased by 2.2% and was extended to 23 and 24-year-olds for…
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What do we already know? As part of an employer’s obligations to prevent illegal working, there is a requirement to check the right to work of all employees’ original documents in person on or before their first day of work. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, employers have temporarily not been required to see an…
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What do we already know? We have updated you in previous Newsletters (see here) that EU citizens and family members who want to continue to live and work in the UK beyond 30 June 2021 will need to apply to the EU Settlement Scheme. (Those who have indefinite leave to enter or remain, or who…
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What do we already know? In our December 2020 Newsletter we updated you here on the High Court decision that the Government had not properly implemented various EU health and safety protections (The Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain v The Secretary of State for Work & Pensions and another). In particular, the High Court…
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What do we already know? Organisations which: have a worldwide turnover in excess of £36 million per year; supply goods or services; and carry on business, in whole or in part, in the United Kingdom; need to comply with the UK’s Modern Slavery Act 2015 (MSA) disclosure obligations. Part of these obligations is to publish…
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Currently, as the UK goes through its priority groups, we are not yet in a situation where everyone has had the opportunity to be vaccinated (whether they wish to be or not). In particular, the priority groups are primarily set on the basis of age. Therefore introducing a mandatory vaccination policy now would likely be…
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As you may be aware, last March, shortly after pandemic restrictions were announced, the Government Equalities Office said it would suspend compulsory reporting of 2019/20 figures. The EHRC have now put out a rather complicated notice that basically says that they won’t be chasing anyone for 6 months, to 5 October 2021.  To clarify: March/April…
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What do we already know? More than 112 organisations across almost 500 sites are offering rapid, regular workforce testing, and more than 2.5 million lateral flow tests have been distributed by the Government. Lateral flow is an established technology, adapted to detect proteins (antigens) that are present when a person has COVID-19. The test kit…
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What do we already know? The Restriction of Public Sector Exit Payments Regulations 2020 (the Regulations) came into force on 4 November 2020.  For further information see our December 2020 Newsletter Government reforms (2): Public sector exit payments – caps lock on… What’s new? The Government has disapplied the exit payment cap and will be…
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