Since 2020 we have all lived with uncertainty and had to react to numerous changes and challenges. It has certainly been a period of disruption on all levels, both personal and business. Whilst it’s impossible to be 100% certain, we are hoping 2022 will be more proactive than reactive although, as we have learnt, COVID can certainly change things very rapidly. However, there are some things which we know are coming in 2022 and we thought we’d summarise them for you so that you can plan ahead.
Statutory rate increases
National minimum/living wage increase
As usual, and announced by the Chancellor in the budget, these rates will change from April 2022.
- 23+ year olds will increase to £9.50 per hour
- 21-22 year olds will increase to £9.18 per hour
- 18-20 year olds will increase to £6.83 per hour
- 16-17 year olds will increase to £4.81 per hour
- Apprentices will increase to £4.81 per hour
The new rates will apply from 1st April 2022 and you will need to keep abreast of employees’ birthdays to ensure that if they move from one band to another you increase their rate of pay from that date.
Statutory maternity, paternity, adoption, shared parental and parental bereavement pay
Will increase from £151.97 per week to £156.66 per week from 3rd April 2022
Statutory sick pay
Will increase from £96.35 per week to £99.35 per week from 6th April 2022.
Lower earnings limit
The lower earnings limit for eligibility to statutory payments will also increase from £120 to £123 per week – this is the first time this has increased in two years.
Bank holidays
To celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, an additional Bank Holiday was announced. This will fall on Friday 3rd June 2002 and the normal late May bank holiday, which would normally have fallen on Monday 30th May 2022, has been moved to Thursday 2nd June 2022 to give a long weekend.
In our standard contracts the wording is inclusive of bank holidays and does not state the specific number of bank holidays (normally 8). This is deliberate, although we are aware that some clients change the wording either to state the number of days holiday and/or the number of bank/public holiday. If the wording is inclusive e.g. 5.6 weeks including bank/public holidays, then the fact that an extra bank holiday has been added this year does not entitle your employees to that extra day. However, a note a caution on the employee relations front, your employees are likely to be very unhappy if you don’t grant that additional bank holiday. So, our recommendation is that you do grant, and pay for, that additional day, whether it is taken on the actual day or if your business is operational on that day, on another day during the year.
Covid
There is no doubt that we will all have to continue to live with Covid during 2022 and almost certainly beyond. Whilst some organisations (care homes and the NHS) have a mandatory duty to ensure that their employees are fully vaccinated, for everyone else encouraging your employees to get vaccinated and keep up with boosters is the way forward. If you have a legitimate reason for doing so (e.g. working with vulnerable people) you may wish to keep track of your employees’ vaccination status. As we have advised previously, doing this may fall into a special category of GDPR so do ask us if you are unsure.
Family friendly rights
Neonatal leave and pay
A new Employment Bill was announced in 2019 and is now expected to be passed this year (2022). This bill with include the introduction of statutory neonatal leave and pay for parents of babies requiring neonatal care.
Redundancy protection
Additionally, it will introduce protection from redundancy in the 6 months after return from maternity leave. Currently, this protection is only whilst on maternity leave and ends on return to work.
Carer’s leave
The Government has also confirmed the introduction of carer’s leave as a new statutory right which will entitle carers to up to 1 week of unpaid leave per year from day 1 of employment. With many employees now having caring responsibilities in addition to their obligations at work, this could be a significant benefit even if it is currently unpaid.
Third party and sexual harassment
In July 2021, the Government published its response to a consultation on workplace sexual harassment which had been launched in 2019. The aim is to encourage employers to prioritise the prevent of sexual harassment in the workplace by taking proactive steps (e.g. training) to make workplaces safer environments for all employees.
As part of this, it is expected that the time limits for making harassment claims, including third party harassment (e.g. harassment by a client, customer or supplier), will increase from 3 to 6 months after the last incident and that this will apply to all forms of harassment resulting from a protected criterion, not just sexual harassment.
This legislation will be enacted “when parliamentary time allows” but is very likely to be before the next election (2024) if not before.
We recommend that our clients get ahead of the new requirements and, if not doing so already, talk to us about workplace training and other procedures (e.g. reporting mechanisms) to safeguard against potential harassment and resulting claims. The strongest defence is that you have taken “all reasonable steps” to prevent harassment from occurring; if there is something which would have been “reasonable” and you have failed to include that, the defence would fail.
This is an example of one of the guides we send, regularly, to members of our Advice Line service. Contact us to find out more about this and receive regular updates on employment law and HR changes.
