With 2021 less than a month away, we now look at the upcoming 2021 employment law changes.
2021 Employment Law Changes
The 2021 employment law changes include the following:-
- 31st December 2020 - The Brexit transitional period ends
- 1st January 2021 - The new post Brexit immigration system comes into force
- 31st January 2021- Deadline for applying for the incentive payment for hiring new apprentices
- 12th March 2021 - Second Reading of the Pregnancy and Maternity (Redundancy Protection) Bill 2019-21
- 30th March 2021 - Deadline for gender pay gap reporting by public sector employers
- 31st March 2021 - The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme ends
- 4th April 2021 - Deadline for gender pay gap reporting for private sector employers and voluntary organisations
- 4th April 2021 - Increases in Statutory Maternity Pay, Statutory Paternity Pay, Shared Parental Pay, Adoption Pay, and Maternity Allowance
- 4th April 2021 - Increase in Statutory Sick Pay
- 4th April 2021 - Increase in Statutory Parental Bereavement Pay
- 6th April 2021 - Increases in the National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage
- 6th April 2021 -Â The extension of IR35 to medium and large sized businesses in the private sector takes effect, a change that has been described as potentially "catastrophic for the economy"
- 31st December 2021 - Hiring end date under the Government's Kickstart Scheme.
Beyond The 2021 Employment Law Changes
The following is a list of changes which will occur beyond the 2021 employment law changes:-
- 2021 - The new Employment Bill that was announced in the 2019 Queens Speech was delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic, but it is anticipated that it will be introduced in 2021.
- 2022 - The extension of protection against redundancy re pregnancy, maternity, adoption, and shared parental leave
- 2023 - Neonatal leave and pay
Other Potential Future Changes
- Carers leave. A consultation was launched in March 2020, which closed in August 2020, in relation to a potential new right for employees with caring responsibilities to take a week’s unpaid leave per year. The proposal is likely to be included in the government’s anticipated Employment Bill.
- New legislation has been promised by the Government to ensure that tips left by customers in restaurants are retained by staff in full, and are not either partially or wholly taken off them by their employers.
- Ethnicity pay gap reporting
- New rules on publishing modern slavery statements
- A new right for workers to request a more stable contract after 26 weeks service
- The extension of time required to break a period of continuous service from one week to four weeks
- The establishment of a new single enforcement body for employment rights
