Pursuit Resources Group have been providing access to employment law support and advice to our clients for many years. Partnering with KLC Employment Law Consultants LLP has enabled us to add value to our recruitment service. We also host regular Employment Law workshops and seminars for our clients that are held throughout the year.
KLC produce a monthly bulletin to bring you the latest news and cases. Every month we will feature this news on our blog to ensure we keep you up-to-date with what’s hot in employment law.
Parental Bereavement Leave and Pay
The Parental Bereavement (Leave and Pay) Bill 2018 received Royal Assent on 13 September 2018. It introduces a statutory right to time off for employed parents who lose a child under the age of 18. It also covers those who suffer a stillbirth from 24 weeks of pregnancy.
Under the Act the right to 2 weeks’ leave will be a day one right. However, employees will require 26 weeks’ service with their employer to be eligible to receive bereavement pay. Statutory bereavement pay will be at the same rate as other family-related statutory payments (currently £145.18 per week).
The Act fulfils the Government’s manifesto promise to introduce such an entitlement. Its provisions are expected to come into force in 2020.
Women’s rights and guidance on sexual harassment
In late July the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) published a comprehensive report about women’s rights, Pressing for progress: women’s rights and gender equality in 2018.
The report covers all areas of life and addresses employment at chapter 8, Just and Fair Conditions of Work. The recommendations concerning women and work include the following.
The UK and Welsh Governments should:
- monitor, and improve through concrete steps, women’s access to secure employment with just and fair conditions, including for groups with comparatively low employment rates such as ethnic minority women and disabled women.
- address the problems with the availability and affordability of properly regulated childcare, including by ensuring adequately funded, flexible and high-quality childcare for all children, and monitor the impact different models of provision have on women’s labour market participation, and
- encourage men and women to share caring responsibilities on an equal basis.
- ensure that women have access to employment advice services, particularly in relation to sexual harassment and the rights of pregnant women and new mothers.
- take steps to tackle women’s persistent occupational segregation in typically low-paid roles and sectors.
- ensure high-quality apprenticeships to reduce women’s employment gaps and occupational segregation, and
- consider ways to improve the participation and progression rates of under-represented groups in apprenticeships and set aspirational targets.
- develop national action plans to close gender, disability and ethnicity pay gaps, and report regularly on progress.
The UK Government should:
- introduce dedicated non-transferable ‘use it or lose it’ parental leave for fathers with a pay rate that acts as a real incentive to take-up, and
- legislate to extend the right to request flexible working to apply from day one in all jobs, unless there is a genuine business reason that means that this is not possible.
- introduce a mandatory duty on employers to take reasonable steps to protect workers from harassment and victimisation in the workplace.
- introduce a statutory code of practice on sexual harassment and harassment at work, specifying the steps that employers should take to prevent and respond to sexual harassment, and which can be considered in evidence when determining whether the mandatory duty has been breached, and
- amend the Equality Act 2010 to prohibit employers asking job applicants questions related to pregnancy and maternity, with a breach enforceable by the EHRC.
- enforce the National Living Wage and monitor and report on the impact of NWL on women’s pay and standard of living, and consider increasing the level at which NWL is paid, and
- make it mandatory for employers to publish a narrative with their gender pay gap data to help employees and the public understand the factors underlying the gender pay gap and focus on how to make substantive improvements to the workplace for women.
Following the EHRC survey on sexual harassment and subsequent guidance, Sexual harassment and the law: guidance for employers, the Women and Equalities Committee produced its report on Sexual Harassment in the Workplace.
The report echoes many of the EHRC’s recommendation on what should be done to tackle sexual harassment at work, including:
- placing a mandatory duty on employers to protect workers from harassment and victimisation in the workplace
- better controlling the use of non-disclosure agreements in cases of sexual harassment and making it an offence to propose a confidentiality clause designed or intended to prevent or limit the making of a protected disclosure or disclosure of a criminal offence.
To read the conclusions and recommendations click here.
Pursuit Resources Group host regular Employment Law workshops and seminars that will support you in working towards your CIPD. It is also a fantastic opportunity to increase your CPD points towards your development as a HR professional.
See below for our upcoming Employment Law events – click on the image to register your interest.
[av_horizontal_gallery ids=’2634,2636,2637′ height=’25’ size=’large’ links=’active’ lightbox_text=” link_dest=” gap=’large’ active=’enlarge’ initial=” control_layout=’av-control-default’ id=” custom_class=”]