Increase to statutory redundancy pay

The Chancellor announced in his budget yesterday that Statutory Redundancy Pay will increase from a maximum of £350 to £380 per week.  This is a concession to those who raised concerns that SRP was not adequately compensating people for loss of employment, and had not kept up with inflation.  However, Alistair Darling did not say when the increase will come into force, or whether the increase will apply for calculation of unfair dismissal awards. He allocated just one sentence to the measure. We will keep you updated.

Flexible working rights extended: an additional 4.5 million parents to benefit

From 6 April parents of children aged 16 and under are entitled to ask their employer for flexible working arrangements (such as part-time working, flexi-time, job-sharing or home-working) and to have their request considered in accordance with the new regime. Previously, this right was only available to parents with children aged six and under, parents of disabled children up to the age of 18 and to carers of adults.

An additional 4.5 million parents are estimated to have acquired the right to request a flexible working arrangement as a result of this change. This adds to the 6 million parents and carers who already have this right. The Government has indicated that it will be monitoring the effect that the extension of this right will have on businesses. The Workplace Employer Relations Survey, to be conducted by The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform in 2010, is expected to provide the first indication.

Comment:
Whilst the Government has acknowledged the potential for increased costs for employers in dealing with additional requests for flexible working arrangements, it has also pointed to the financial benefits flexible working arrangements have been found to have, resulting from higher productivity, lower staff turnover and reduced absenteeism.
In practice, employers will need to ensure that any requests for flexible working arrangements are considered in line with the procedural requirements required by the new regulations and will also need to ensure that there are 'good business reasons' for rejecting any such requests.

Disability discrimination: normal day to day activities
Chief constable of dumfries & galloway constabulary v adams

The EAT has given guidance on what the word "normal" means when considering whether a condition impacts on a "normal day-to-day activity" for the purposes of meeting the test for disability set out in the Disability Discrimination Act 1995.

Mr Adams (A), a police officer, suffered from ME and had mobility problems between 2 and 4am when working night shift.  The Employment Tribunal held that A was disabled.  On appeal to the EAT, the Chief Constable of Dumfries Galloway Constabulary (CC) argued that the Tribunal should have determined that A was not carrying out normal day-to-day activities when he experienced mobility problems as he was a policeman, a specialised job, which required him to work night shift.  The appeal was refused and the EAT concluded that "something that a person does only at work may be classed as normal if it is common to different types of employment". In A's case, he had difficulty walking around, climbing stairs, driving and getting undressed at the end of his shift. The EAT concluded that such activities were normal day-to-day activities and also that carrying out these activities at work between 2 and 4am was a normal day-to-day activity.

The EAT confirmed that specialist skills are not normal day-to-day activities but that A's role was not specialised as there are a number of workers in the UK who work night shift. In discussing specialised jobs, the EAT used the example of a skilled silversmith or watchmaker using specialised tools to craft fine objects and said that although this would be a normal day-to-day activity for the silversmith or watchmaker it would not be classed as a normal day-to-day activity in terms of the DDA.

Comment:
When reviewing whether a medical condition amounts to a disability, whether it impacts on a normal day-to-day activity must be considered. In cases where this could be disputed, this case gives some useful guidance.

Employer lobby groups reveal their budget orientated wishlist

We're all too aware of the impact the current economic climate has had on the workplace with "redundancy", "redeployment" and "cost cutting measures" becoming commonly used words.  Against that backdrop leading employment bodies revealed their budget wishlist, devised to help struggling employers combat the recession and prepare for the upturn:-

1. Skills: more money into "train to gain" - a skills programme to enable employers to upskill their staff. A fund for larger firms to access to train their staff in modules – a move similar to the increased flexibility SMEs gained last year. Also, for the government to offer tax credits to employers who continue to train their staff or retain apprentices;

2. Tax/Regulations: for National Insurance employer contributions to remain the same (but with cuts in employer contributions for smaller businesses) as the rise due in 2011 would hit businesses while they're recovering from the recession. Employers to be provided with support to meet the demands of the Equality Bill (now expected at the end of April). A call on the government to delay implementation of the Agency Workers Directive - which will give agency worker staff the same rights as permanent employees after just 12 weeks - until the latest possible date (October 2011);

3. Short time working: many employers in the manufacturing, financial services and service sectors have already implemented shorter working weeks and both unions and employer groups have called for the government to create a short-time working scheme or subsidy to help employers hold onto staff in anticipation of an eventual upturn. This has been met with opposition from the CIPD and the CBI, who feel this big cost would turn out to be "ultimately purposeless", as many employers with no intention of making any redundancies would take the money;

4. Green issues: schemes to be put in place to create jobs in the electronic motor industry, a focus on increasing reliance on green manufacturing and improving house building and transport and communications infrastructure; and

5. Welfare reform: an additional £150m per annum is required to help deal with the surge in demand to assist newly unemployed individuals return to work. New infrastructure projects (totalling £20bn) aims to move thousands of unemployed off benefits and back to work over the next 12 months.

Did they get their wish list? An additional £1.7 billion has been set aside to sustain the high numbers currently moving off jobseekers allowance and to provide support to the minority who remain unemployed for longer, together with a commitment of a guaranteed job, training or work placements for all 18-24 years olds who are 12 months plus unemployed. However, not all wishes have come true…