0370 270 6000
Home arrow Insights & events arrow Resources arrow Blogs arrow Employment law changes taking effect on 1 October 2013

Employment law changes taking effect on 1 October 2013

1 October 2013

Today brings with it two significant changes to the employment law arena:

  1. The abolition of third party harassment – an employer will no longer be liable if it fails to act when it knows that an employee is being harassed by a third party. However, companies should remain vigilant as liability may still arise in another form (e.g. if an employee resigns as a result of third party harassment and seeks to bring a constructive dismissal claim);
  2. An increase in the national minimum wage:
    • workers aged 21 and over – £6.31
    • workers between 18 and 20 – £5.03
    • non-apprentice workers under 18 but above school age – £3.72
    • apprentices – £2.68

The above rates will also apply to agricultural workers who join the industry today. Traditionally agricultural workers have been entitled to generous rates of pay based on the grade or category of work involved. Despite the cost savings, this change is likely to be a double edged sword. New starters will likely be disgruntled when they find out they are being paid less than their counterparts.

For more a more detailed breakdown of the changes that are taking place please read our legal bulletin.

Related opinions

Internal reports and privilege

In University of Dundee v Chakraborty, the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) considered whether a first draft of a grievance report could retrospectively be deemed to be privileged.

View blog

IR35 rules to be scrapped from April 2023

The Chancellor’s recent mini-budget provided a significant announcement for business as it was confirmed that the off-payroll working rules (known as “IR35”) put in place for public and private sector businesses from 2017 and 2021 will be scrapped from April 2023.

View blog

Revoking and reforming EU law

The Government has published the Retained EU Revocation and Reform Bill which, if passed, provides for the revocation of all “EU-derived subordinate legislation” (i.e. UK statutory instruments which were introduced to implement EU law) and retained direct EU legislation on 31 December 2023, unless legislation is specifically introduced to save them.

View blog

Gender equality

Randstad has published a report on gender equality in the workplace based upon survey responses from 6,000 workers within the construction, education, healthcare and technology sectors. Whilst legislation relating to sex discrimination has been around for over 45 years, nearly three quarters of female workers surveyed reported that they had either experienced or witnessed inappropriate behaviour or comments from male colleagues.

View blog

View all blogs

Mailing list sign up

Select which mailings you would like to receive from us.

Sign up

Quick links

Information

  1. ISO 27001 INFORMATION SECURITY MANAGEMENT UKAS
  2. Investors in people
  3. Lexcel
  5. Plain English Campaign Approved

© Copyright Browne Jacobson LLP 2022 - All rights reserved