Employment Law Round-Up – New Rates and Limits

25/04/2018

It’s that time of year again in which employers have to familiarise themselves with the increases in compensation limits, statutory payments and the National Minimum Wage.

The new rates for 2018/2019 are as follows:

Statutory payments for time off work:

Maternity/Adoption pay prescribed rate (max)                                                                                        £145.18
Paternity pay (max)£145.18
Share parental pay (max)£145.18
Sick pay£92.05
Lower earnings limit£116.00

National Minimum Wage:

Apprentices (if under 19/first year of apprenticeship)£3.70
Age 16-17£4.20
Age 18-20£5.90
Age 21-24£7.38
National Living Wage (age 25+)£7.83

Compensation limits:

Weeks’ pay£508
Statutory Redundancy payments£15,240.00
Unfair dismissal basic award£15,240.00
Unfair dismissal compensatory award£83,682.00 or 52 weeks’ actual gross pay, whichever is lower
Automatic unfair dismissal basic award (min)£6,203.00
Failure to reinstate of re-engage£13,208.00 to £26,416.00
Breach of the right to be accompanied£1,016.00
Breach of flexible working regulations£4,064.00
Failure to give written particulars of employment£1,106.00 to £2,032.00

The above are maximums unless stated.

Employers should familiarise themselves with the updated rates and limits. A weeks pay is used, for example, to calculate a statutory redundancy payment amongst other things.

There has been no change to the limits of a claim for breach of contract in the Employment Tribunal which currently stands at £25,000.  There has been no change with regard to 90 days pay (limit on week pay does not apply) for failure to inform or consult in a collective redundancy process (limit on week pay does not apply) nor in respect of a failure to inform or consult arising from a TUPE transfer which is still 13 weeks pay.

In respect of payments on insolvency, the maximum payments are as follows:

Arrears of pay£4,064.00
Statutory notice pay (12 weeks’ pay)£6,096.00
Holiday pay (6 weeks’ pay)£3,048.00
Statutory redundancy payment or basic award (30 weeks’ pay)£15,240.00

Given the increase in the National Minimum Wage/National Living Wage, employers should satisfy themselves that their staff are receiving at least one of these. A worker’s average hourly rate is calculated on the basis of the total remuneration earned over the relevant pay reference period divided by the total number of hours worked over the pay reference period.

MORE INFORMATION 

As an employer or HR professional should you have any questions arising from rates and limits above, please do not hesitate to contact our Employment Department – our team of expert solicitors will be able to assist. Call on 01708 229444 or email us using our contact form.This article was written by Alexander Pearce, Employment Law Associate at Pinney Talfourd LLP Solicitors. The contents of this article are for the purposes of general awareness only. They do not purport to constitute legal or professional advice. Specific legal advice should be taken on each individual matter. This article is based on the law as of April 2018.

25/04/2018

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