[Switch to the current edition of Connection »]

2012 Employment Law

2012 Employment Law Changes

2012 presents new employer legislation relevant to all organisations, large and small; whether it is statutory redundancy payments, parental leave, pensions or unfair dismissal.

We present you with the Employment Law key dates for 2012

Date	Law
15 January 2012	Localism Act 2011. The Localism Act 2011 prescribes that local authorities must prepare a pay policy statement for the financial year 2012/13 and subsequent financial years.
1 February 2012	Employment Rights Order 2011. The Employment Rights Order 2011 comes into force, increasing limits on employment tribunal awards and other amounts paid under employment law. The maximum unfair dismissal compensatory award rises from £68,400 to £72,300 and the maximum amount of a week’s pay for the purpose of calculating a statutory redundancy payment and the basic and additional awards for unfair dismissal increases from £400 to £430.
8 March 2012	Parental leave increases from three to four months. The minimum period of leave permitted to parents following childbirth or adoption increases from three to four months, and at least one month of the four cannot be transferred to the other parent.
April 2012	Changes to income tax thresholds. The income tax personal allowance increases by £630, bringing it to £8,105. The threshold at which employees pay the higher income tax rate of 40% is reduced to £34,371 (from £35,001).
1 April 2012	Maternity, paternity and adoption pay increase. The standard rate of statutory maternity, paternity and adoption pay will increase from £128.73 to £135.45 per week.
6 April 2012	Statutory sick pay increase. Statutory sick pay will increase from £81.60 to £85.85 per week.
6 April 2012	Qualifying period for unfair dismissal increases. The qualifying period for employees to bring a claim of unfair dismissal increases from one year to two years.
6 April 2012	Changes to employment tribunal procedure. The maximum amount of a deposit order, which a tribunal can order a party to pay as a condition to continuing with tribunal proceedings, increases from £500 to £1,000. The maximum amount of a costs order, which a tribunal may award in favour of a legally represented party, increases from £10,000 to £20,000.
6 April 2012	Lower earnings limit for NI contributions increase. Limit for Primary Class 1 contributions increases from £102 to £107.
6 April 2012	Contracting out of the state additional pension abolished. The Pensions Act 2007 and the Pensions Act 2008 abolish contracting out of the state additional pension on a defined-contribution basis for occupational, personal and stakeholder pension schemes and the rules governing contracted-out rights in.
1 September 2012	Employers’ Duties (Implementation) Regulations 2010. The Regulations set out the details of how employers’ duties under the National Employment Savings Trust pension scheme, which requires employers automatically to enrol staff into a pension scheme and pay a minimum contribution, will be staged in over time.
1 October 2012	Pensions automatic-enrolment begins. The Pensions Act 2008 provides that employers must enrol automatically all eligible employees not already participating in a workplace pension scheme into the employer’s pension scheme or the National Employment Savings Trust pension scheme. This takes effect for the largest employers from 1 October and will be phased in for the coming years for smaller employers.

There are a number of other Employment Law developments that are upcoming, but for which no date has yet been set. We’ll be keeping you up-do-date with these, as and when they evolve over the coming months.

Ceridian provides a range of Employment Law services through our partner, Ellis Whittam. For more information, contact us online or call today on 0800 0482 737.