Employment Law E-Bulletin

Oct 2007

QUICK LINK

Read this month's cases in detail

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HOLIDAYS AND HOLIDAY PAY

This month's e-bulletin aims to be a comprehensive guide to holiday pay.

As of 1st October 2007 the law governing entitlement to annual leave has changed. Every worker is now entitled to the equivalent of 4.8 weeks off work per year. A further increase will be implemented on 1st April 2009 and will bring the statutory minimum to 5.6 weeks per year. This means that as of 2009 every employee working a 5 day week will be entitled to 28 days’ holiday per year.

Read full article

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CASES

Age discrimination

The case of Holmes v Active Sensors Ltd confirms that, provided an employer follows the statutory procedure, it is not age discrimination to retire an employee at 65.

Getting rid of malingerers

The decision of the Employment Appeal Tribunal in Corus UK Ltd v Mainwaring is also pro-employer in that it sets some ground rules as to how far employers need to go when investigating employees whose sickness absence is in question.

Read this month's cases in detail

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LEGISLATION UPDATE

Obviously the big news this month is the change to holiday entitlements which we have covered in our main feature but the minimum wage has also been increased and the government recently announced a new timetable for the expected paternity leave rules.

In terms of the national minimum wage, 1 October 2007 saw the rates increase as follows:

* Workers aged 22 or more - £5.52 per hour
* Workers aged 18 to 21 - £4.60 per hour
* Workers aged 16 to 17 - £3.40 per hour

You may recall that back in October last year we reported on the government’s plans to allow the father or partner of a mother who returns to work without using up her full maternity leave entitlement to take the remaining allowance as paternity leave up to a maximum of 26 weeks. This was due to be implemented in April 2009 but the government has now announced a delay to this and the changes are not now expected to come into effect until 2010 at the earliest. When we know more, we will let you know!

For further information on the issues featured here or any other employment law issue contact Burnetts' employment law solicitors on 01228 552222

Oct 2007