Effective from 1 October 2014, the National Minimum Wage Rates (NMW). You are required by law to ensure you pay your workers at least the national minimum wage (NMW). Any changes generally take place in October each year.

Another important change from 1 October 2010 was the introduction of an apprentice rate of NMW.

19 year old & under and those in the first year of their apprenticeship will be entitled to the apprentice rate of £2.68 per hour but after that they will be entitled to the normal rate of minimum wage for their age.

Employees are entitled to the NMW even if they sign a contract agreeing to be paid at a lower rate. The contract will have no legal effect and employees must still be paid the proper rate.

Currently, the right to request flexible working hours is restricted to carers, including parents of young children, disabled children and adults in need of care. This is the right for employees to request changes to their working hours, working times or location and if granted such changes, become permanent changes to their terms and conditions of employment.

Changes to this scheme are due to be implemented on 30th June 2014 will mean that employees can make a flexible working request for any reason, but employers will no longer be required to meet with the current, complex statutory procedure, when responding to flexible working requests.

The changes in June will result in the following:

1. Employees will have a statutory right to request flexible working for any reason. They must have 26 weeks’ continuous employment prior to the date of their request and must not have made a previous flexible working request within the last 12 months.

2. Employers will be required to respond to such requests in a “reasonable manner”

What is a “reasonable manner”? This is explained in detail in a new ACAS guide “Handling requests to work flexibly in a reasonable manner”. This can be found on the ACAS web site www.acas.org.uk

 The new process for handling flexible working requests can be summarised as follows:

1. On receiving a flexible working request, a meeting should be arranged with the employee to discuss the request as soon as possible. Employees should be offered the right to be accompanied by a colleague or trade union representative.

2. The employer can decide to approve a request without holding a meeting.

3. Requests can only be refused for one of eight specific business reasons, which are: Burden of additional costs: Inability to reorganise work: Inability to recruit additional staff; Detrimental impact on quality; Detrimental impact on performance; Detrimental effect on ability to meet customer demand: Insufficient work for the periods the employee proposes to work: A planned structural change to your business.

4. The employer must inform the employee of their decision in writing as soon as possible, with their reason for refusing the request and right to appeal (if the request is refused).

5. Total time for the whole process to be completed, including appeals is three months.

If you have a flexible working policy, then you will need to review it to ensure it complies with the new requirements.

Shared Parental Leave

Couples with a baby due, (or adopting a child) will now be able to take advantage of the new regulations that allow them to share maternity leave.

After two weeks’ maternity leave (or four weeks if the mother is employed in factory work), the couple will be able to split the remaining 50 (or 48) weeks’ maternity leave. This can be split in any way they like, but must be taken in whole week periods.

Eligibility

Both partners must meet with the eligibility requirements. The mother must have been employed continuously for at least 26 weeks by the end of the15th week before the due date. The partner must have worked for at least 26 weeks at some point (not necessarily consecutively), during the 66 weeks before the due date.

Statutory Minimum Entitlements

90% of salary for the first six weeks. £139.58 a week, or 90% of average earnings, whichever is lower for the following 33 weeks. The final 13 weeks’ leave entitlement is unpaid.

Notice requirements

All requests for Shared Parental Leave require a minimum of eight weeks’ notice from the employee, prior to the   first day of the leave requested.

.