April 2010 - changes in employment law

Thursday, 08 April 2010 00:00

The beginning of April traditionally marks the implementation of new employment legislation and this year is no exception. 3 key changes to be aware of are:

Fit Notes

"Fit Notes" have been widely publicised and have caused some confusion and criticism. The aim of the change is to enable GPs to specify particular steps an employee or an employer can take to reduce the amount of time the employee is off sick. The Employer is not obliged to follow the advice by the GP but it remains to be seen whether employees might seek to claim a breach of contract for unreasonably failing to take steps which would have allowed the employee to return to work and full pay. We have prepared a note on the impact of fit notes which is available here.

Right to request training

New legislation that has not been so widely publicised is an employee's right to request time off for specific work related training. Employers are obliged to reasonably consider the request and whilst they are not required to pay for the training they may be obliged to allow the time off. There are qualifying criteria: the employee must have more than 26 weeks' service and the employer must employ more than 250 staff. From 6 April next year, the right will apply to all employees with qualifying service regardless of the size of the employer's business, so it will be interesting to see how this works in practice. BusinessLink have provided a useful summary available here

Paternity leave

Fathers and partners will now be entitled to take up to 6 months additional paternity leave provided the mother or principal adopter returns to work early. Whilst the provisions are now live, they will only apply to children due to be born/adopted from 3 April 2011. BusinessLink have provided a useful summary available here

To find out more about these or any other aspects of employment law, contact our employment team on 01392 207020.