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Employment changes top legal agenda in 2013

Companies in the region are being urged to prepare for a number of changes to employment law in the coming months.

Employment law expert Katherine Maxwell from Moore Blatch, said these include changes to parental leave, statutory pay and reduced consultation periods for some redundancy procedures.

“These changes will affect almost all businesses in some way and now is the time to prepare for the impact the new laws will have on their organisations,’ she said.

The first change in March affects parental leave and means qualifying employees will be able to take 18 weeks of unpaid leave – up from the current level of 13 weeks.

“Companies will need to ensure their policies clearly incorporate these new regulations and on a practical level be prepared to cover these times of absence,’’ said Katherine.

In April the new statutory payments rates come into force with rises affecting maternity, paternity and adoption pay together with sick pay.

“The changes here are minor but companies do need to be aware and prepared for the introduction of these rises,’’ added Katherine.

For companies faced with making more than 100 employees redundant, the new 45 day consultation period will also be introduced in April, half the previous 90 day limit.

“These provide the foundations for employment changes in the first part of the year and we are working with companies now to ensure they are aware of the details of these changes and ready to implement the new laws,’’ said Katherine.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Katherine Maxwell .