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My latest free video is out. Apologies for the face. No apologies for up to the minute - well, week - legal developments.  Just click below and find out about -

• New carers' leave rights coming
• Flexi Working changes
• Fees tipped to return to employment tribunals
• The New Homes Ombudsman and their social housing mate  

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Interest on compensation for special losses in personal injury cases - up again!

The proposed legislation on private rentals in England. Should landlords get out?

New law to protect pregnant workers from being made redundant.

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LEGAL ROUND UP FOR ALL: THE LATEST IN LAWLAND

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There's no catch. Honest. Find out by clicking on the box above all about the legal developments on those topics mentioned.

EMPLOYMENT TRIBUNAL AWARD LIMITS RISE

Try and stay in your job until 06 April 2022. If you fired on or after that date, the ceiling for the compensation an employment tribunal can award you for an unfair dismissal is increased by a handsome 4.9%. This is in line with the rise in the retail prices index between September 2020 and September 2021. 

The same level of increase is applied across the board for the various types of employment complaints that can be made but  none of the increases are retrospective. They apply to the employer's misdeeds which are taken to have arisen after 5 April 2022.

For these hikes, you can kiss (or kick, if you are an employer) the Employment Rights (Increase of Limits) Order 2022 (SI 2022/182) which, for example, also sees what is deemed to be one week's pay - and this limit is used for the calculation of redundancy payments and the basic and additional award for unfair dismissal - rises from £544 to £571. The maximum compensatory award for unfair dismissal goes up by £4,385 to £93,878.

All this applies to England, Wales and Scotland.    

Behave at Work for Just 4 Weeks

Just four weeks to 6 April 2020. That's when the compensation limits which employment tribunals can dole out will be rising. This means if the axe is treated as falling on or after that date, you would qualify for a little bit more. For unfair dismissal as well as redundancy claims, the axe will generally be treated as falling on the date your notice period expires or, if no notice has been given, the date on which termination is to take effect (so "Get out of my office, Buggins, this very second and never allow me to see your ugly face again'' would count as an instant dismissal.)

The new limits reflect the increase in the retail prices index since the last revisions were calculated one year ago and so there's an extra 2.4%  available across the board. For calculating the basic and additional unfair dismissal awards, a weekly amount of pay is taken and that rises from £525 to £538. The ceiling for the compensatory award for unfair dismissal is up from £86,444 to £88,519.

Higher Compensation Limits For Workers

The compensation that an employment tribunal can award you if you have been unfairly thrown out of your job or the been the victim of a multitude of other sins which are open to employers to commit, is reviewed annually in line with the retail prices index. The latest review has been converted into new legislation - the Employment Rights (Increase of Limits) Order 2019 SI 2019/324 - which will raise the compensation limits by 3.3%. So hold on boss, wait a few more weeks before transgressing, will you? Please!

The new limits will only apply when the dismissal or whatever the employer has wrongfully done occurs on a defined date on or after 6 April 2019. That date will vary according to the nature of the sin. For an unfair dismissal or redundancy where notice is given, for example, the new limits will apply if the notice to terminate expires on or after 6 April 2019. If no notice has been given, the new limits will apply if the date termination is to take effect occurs on or after 6 April 2019.

What are the new limits? For the amount of pay taken into account to calculate a redundancy payment or the basic and additional unfair dismissal awards - it's what is know as 'one week's pay' - the figure will be a maximum of £525 instead of £508. For the unfair dismissal compensatory award , a fat £86,444 maximum will be collectible instead of £83,682.

New Rights For Workers

Here's the countdown to new workers' rights brought to you by courtesy of the swingingly entitled Employment Rights (Employment Particulars and Paid Leave ) (Amendment) Regulations 2018 (SI 2018/1378) and the Employment Rights (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2019 (which await being signed off).

06 April 2019    The maximum penalty for aggravated breach of a worker's employment rights under s12A of the Employment Tribunals Act 1966 will generally increase from £5,000 to £20,000.

06 April 2020    One year plus to go so be patient. Workers engaged on or after this date will be entitled to a statement of the particulars of their work even though they are not employees. There will be no minimum qualifying period of work in order to be entitled to be given the statement. The current qualifying period for employees is one month. The statement containing the principal work conditions  will have to be provided at the commencement of work. The remainder can be given in instalments but within two months of commencement of work. Added to the particulars currently needed will be the days of the week to be worked, whether the are variable and, if so, how the variations are to be decided and any probationary period which is to be suffered with its conditions and duration. There are special provisions relating to workers who are already in post before 06 April 2020. And the reference period for calculating holiday pay will increase from 12 to 52 weeks. This will knock out the trick of clocking up as much overtime as possible during the current 12 weeks  which are taken to calculate earnings and thereby increasing holiday pay and causing considerable resentment among workmates.

Pay Slip Reform

As from 6 April 2019 (please note, that's next year!) pay slips will get sexier. For those whose pay varies according to the time worked, the pay slip will have particularise the total number of hours worked by way of a single aggregate figure or separate figures for different rates of pay. The idea is to assist you to identify underpayment, whether it be less than the minimum or living wage or the entitlement under your contract. And the obligation to provide a pay statement will be extended to all workers and not just employees.

If you don't believe me, go to the Employment Rights Act 1996 (Itemised Pay Statement) (Amendment) Order 2018 SI 2018/147 and the Employment Rights Act 1996 (Itemised Pay Statement) (Amendment) (No 2) Order 2018 SI 2018/529. But not in work time!!!

Employment Tribunal Awards To Increase

If you were thinking of procuring your unfair dismissal from work, it could pay you to hold on just a little bit longer. The amount of compensation to which you would be entitled if an employment tribunal decided that your boss had broken employment law is increased for dismissals and other employer transgressions which take place on or after 6 April 2018. 

The compensation is reviewed annually in line with the inevitable increase in the retail prices index. The relevant increase for September 2016 to September 2017 was 3.9% and so the Employment Rights (Increase of Limits) Order 2018 SI 2018/194 reflects the increase in the new compensation figures. For example,the maximum compensatory award for unfair dismissal jumps from £80,541 to £83,682 and the amount of one week's pay for the purposes of calculating redundancy payments and the basic award for unfair dismissal rises from £489 to £508.

Also on 6 April 2019 new laws come in which will compel employers to particularise in pay statements the number of hours worked where you are time-paid and this and other pay slip requirements will be extend to all workers. For more, watch this space.

Employment Tribunal Claims: Latest

Employment Tribunal claims in England and Wales inspired by the Supreme Court's decision that the tribunal fees for applications were unlawful were stayed (halted) on 9 August 2017 (see http://www.breakinglaw.co.uk/2017/08/employment-law-claims-stop-press.html).

The stay decision appeared perplexing as I reported. 

The stay has now been lifted and so can be ignored.

Employment Law Claims Stop Press

This is an update on the ramifications of the Supreme Court's ruling that the widely condemned fees which have been chargeable for employment tribunal claims are unlawful (see http://www.breakinglaw.co.uk/search/label/employment%20tribunal%20fees).

Last Wednesday 9 August 2017 the President of Employment Tribunals Judge Brian Doyle ordered that "all claims or applications brought to the Employment Tribunal in England and Wales upon the (Supreme Court decision)" were to be stayed to await the decisions of the Ministry of Justice and the Courts and Tribunals Service on the implications of the decision. That means that these claims and applications have been halted but not that they have been thrown out.

The order is perplexing and it is to be hoped that its terms and the reasons for it will quickly be clarified. If it is intended to pave the way for reduced fees to be charged in the future for claims that have been made since the Supreme Court ruling without any fee having been paid then it is difficult to see how it will be effective. These claims have been accepted for issue and only new subordinate legislation introducing reduced fees which is retrospective could squeeze money out of claimants. They just don't do subordinate legislation like this.

It is open to any party to one of the recent claims or applications to apply to the regional employment judge for the relevant employment tribunal region for the stay to be lifted. Expect many applications of this nature, particularly because of the novelty of a stay in circumstances such as these. 

What is vital is that claimants who are late in making claims should not tarry on account of this development. The claim should go in without delay to await a decision on whether permission to make it belatedly will be given. The fact that it may be stayed for a while should not influence claimants. 

Employment Tribunal Claims: It may not be too late after all

Have you been prevented or deterred from making an employment tribunal claim because of the prescribed fees you would have to pay over for the privilege? In some cases they came to £390: in others, £1,200. On an appeal to the employment appeal tribunal, they were even higher. The Supreme Court ruled on 26 July 2017 * that these fees were unlawful because they prevented access to justice. The fees are no more: gone, dead. They are no longer being charged and arrangements are being made to refund fees which have been paid over in the past.

There are specific time limits for making an employment tribunal claim and it is generally three months from the end of employment or the happening of the problem. A late claim is sometimes allowed if you can show, depending on the type of claim, that it was not reasonably practicable to make a claim within the three months or in some cases - and this tends it be easier to show- it is just and equitable that you should have more time. If, because of the fees, you did not make a claim or you made one but abandoned it before the second tranche of the relevant fees became payable then you may succeed in an application to be allowed to make a late claim. And if you were put off previously because of the fees but then sought to claim late but were denied, you may be able to successfully appeal, out of time, against the denial. Trying to reopen  a case on then basis of a change in the law has often failed. But here the fact that you were actually or effectively being unlawfully told that you had to shell out money that you could not afford before you could go  ahead or continue would be a powerful argument in favour of you being permitted to put in a late claim. It's a bit like having the doors of the court slammed in your face when you turned up to see that justice was done.

Here's the big hurdle. Despite those hefty fees, it has been possible to apply for them to be remitted, wholly or in part, under the 'help with fees' scheme. If you didn't apply to the tribunal for remission, you will have some explaining to do. Or if you did apply and were turned down, you will have some explaining to do as to why you didn't or couldn't pay the fees it was reckoned you could afford. But if you were turned down and asked to be excused paying the fees under powers to let you off on the ground of exceptional circumstances and that application was unfairly rejected, you may be in with a chance. The power was hardly even exercised - in the 12 months from 1 July 2015 in just 21 cases.

What is essential is that you now act promptly or you won't have a hope in hell of getting in late. If you haven't ever started a claim previously, you will need to notify Acas under the early conciliation process of your intention to do so.

No promises but there may be hope for you. especially if the complaint you have against the employer appears to be a strong one. That hope will be reduced should the employer be able to show that, with the lapse of time, they would now be prejudiced in resisting the case. 

It is not inconceivable that an attempt will be made in the future to reintroduce employment tribunal fees but at lower rates and following better research.

* The case was R (on the application of UNISON) v Lord Chancellor [2017] UKSC 51

Power to the Whistleblowers

Some of my best friends are whistleblowers - and some of them are either out of work because of their whistleblowing or utterly frustrated because what they revealed at work about the misdeeds of others within the organisation was covered up or completely ignored. 

The law - mainly Part 4A of the Employment Rights Act 1996 - has aimed at protecting whistleblowers who disclose what has been outraging them to a person or body prescribed by the Public Interest Disclosure (Prescribed Persons) Order 2014. The scheme has operated badly with most whistleblowers having no confidence that their disclosures have been investigated properly or at all. Now, the Prescribed Persons (Reports on Disclosures of Information) Regulations 2017 SI 2017/507 which came into force on 1 April 2017 forces those prescribed person and bodies to report annually on whistleblowing activity within the organisation. The report is to include  a summary of the action taken and will usually be published on the website of whoever is doing the reporting.

Attack on Gender Pay Discrimination

You do, don't you? I thought so. You reckon that your boss is paying  more to other employees of opposite gender to you for performing the same or substantially the same duties as you. You may soon be able to find out if they are without the boss knowing that you are checking up on them.

New laws which came into force on 6 April 2017 compel employers with at least 250 employees to publish annual information which is designed to show whether there is a difference in the average pay of their male or female employees. The first publication must be made by 5 April 2018 on the employer's website and in a way which is accessible to all its employees and to the public. Government departments, the armed forces and other public authorities are excluded from these laws but worry not because they are caught by similar legalisation which came into force on 31 March 2017 and must be complied with for the first time by 30 March 2018. This will benefit around 3.8 million employees in England alone. 

If you don't believe me or want to own more then devour the Equality  Act 2010 (Gender  Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2017 SI 2017/172 and the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties and Public Authorities) Regulations 2017 S1 2017/353.