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All change in April for employment law

02 March 2010

Employers need to be aware of these and ensure they meet their new legal obligations.

HR teams should consider whether they need to:

make changes or additions to their policies and procedures in staff handbooks
train managers and others for example, on how to handle a request for time off to train
review their organisation’s use of personal data to ensure any potential breaches are identified and corrected
plan for future changes where relevant, for example if the public sector equality duty will apply or agency workers are used

Change	Date
Right to request time off to train (for businesses with more than 250 employees only)	6 April 2010
Employment Tribunal Rules to be amended so that copies of ET1 claims involving whistleblowing can be passed to the relevant regulator	Claims presented on or after 6 April 2010
Fit notes replace sick notes	6 April 2010
Maximum fine for serious breach of data protection law increased to £500,000	6 April 2010

And on the horizon in 2011, some further dates for your diaries.

Change	Date
Main provisions of Equality Bill in force	Expected October 2010 (subject to the Bill receiving Royal Assent before the general election)
Additional paternity leave of up to 26 weeks and pay which can be accessed once the mother has returned to work.	Babies due on or after 3 April 2011
Right to request time off to train (for businesses with 250 or less employees)	Expected April 2011
Extended public sector equality duty under the Equality Bill	Expected April 2011
Equal treatment for agency workers	1 October 2011
Age discrimination in the provision of services outlawed	Some time in 2012

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