With 2021 almost over and 2022 just around the corner, we have taken the opportunity to update our article on the upcoming 2022 employment law changes.
Next year may include an Employment Bill, given that none was included in the Queen’s Speech on the 11th May 2021. Indeed, given the recent announcement in relation to staff tips, which will be included in the Employment Bill, it would be a huge surprise if no Employment Bill materialised next year as part of the 2022 employment law changes.
2022 Employment Law Changes: Rate Changes
The 2022 employment law changes will include the usual set of rate changes, which as usual will come into force in April 2022. They will include the following:-
- The National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage (new rates from 1.4.22 here)
- Statutory Maternity Pay, Statutory Paternity Pay, Shared Parental Pay, Adoption Pay, Maternity Allowance, Statutory Parental Bereavement Pay, and Statutory Sick Pay (new rates from 3.4.22 here)
- The statutory cap on a weeks pay for the purposes of calculating the basic award and statutory redundancy pay. The announcement of the new rates is expected early in 2022
Gender Pay Gap Reporting
The deadline for gender pay gap reporting by public sector employers, private sector employers, and voluntary organisations in 2021 was put back until midnight on the 4th October 2021. However, in terms of 2022, the deadlines are anticipated to revert back to the normal timescales. Accordingly, the deadline for public sector employers to report their data is likely to be the 30th March 2022, with a snapshot date of the 31st March 2021. And for private sector employers and voluntary organisations, the deadline is likely to be the 4th April 2022, with a snapshot date of the 5th April 2021.
Employment Bill
A much anticipated part of the 2022 employment law changes is the Employment Bill, although there is no guarantee that one will appear. If it does, then it is likely to include the following measures:-
- The establishment of a new single enforcement body for employment rights.
- The extension of protection against redundancy re pregnancy, maternity, adoption, and shared parental leave, including extending redundancy protection to six months post return to work after the end of maternity leave, with similar protection afforded to those returning to work from adoption leave and shared parental leave
- Neonatal leave and pay
- A new right to 1 week’s unpaid leave per year for carers
- On the 24th September 2021, the Government announecd that it is to legislate in order to make it compulsory for businesses in the hospitality, services, and leisure sectors to pass on all tips to staff. The new legislation is likely to be included in the Employment Bill. The legislation will include the following: (i) a legal requirement to pass on all tips to staff; (ii) a new statutory code of practice setting out rules and regulations on how tips are distributed amongst staff; and (iii) a right for employees to request information from their employer regarding their tipping records, and a legal right for employees to bring a claim before an employment tribunal should they believe that they are owed money relating to tips
- A new right for workers to request a more stable contract after 26 weeks service
- New legislation to enhance flexible working rights. The Government recently consulted on this issue, and whether to make flexible working a day 1 right, and its response is expected at some point in 2022.
- An extension of time required to break a period of continuous service from one week to four weeks
- New legislation making it compulsory for organisations to publish their modern slavery statements on a new government-run registry
Other possible measures which may appear in any Employment Bill or separately as part of the 2022 employment law changes include:-
- New legislation relating to post-termination non-compete clauses, over which the Government is currently consulting on
- An extension of the ban on exclusivity clauses beyond zero hours contracts, to contracts where the workers’ guaranteed weekly income is less than the Lower Earnings Limit of £120 a week, which the Goivernment is also currently consulting on
- Compensation for those whose shifts are cancelled at short notice, an entitlement to reasonable notice of allocated shifts, and protections for those who refuse last minute shifts
- New legislation to protect against “firing and rehiring”
- In its response to the consultation on sexual harassment in the workplace, the Government Equalities Office stated: "we will legislate to: * introduce a duty on employers to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment, [and] * create explicit protections from harassment by third parties. We will also: * support the Equality and Human Rights Commission to produce a statutory code of practice, alongside producing our own employer guidance, [and] * look closely at extending the time limit for bringing Equality Act-based cases to tribunal to 6 months."
The recent announcement on staff tips on the 24th September 2021 strongly indicates that a new Employment Bill will materialise in 2022, and therefore form part of the 2022 employment law changes.
Other 2022 Employment Law Changes
Other 2022 employment law changes include the following:-
- April 2022 – regulatory reforms for trade unions and employers’ associations will be introduced under which “new enforcement powers and levy mechanism will bring the Certification Officer into line with other regulators like the Pensions Regulator.“
- April 2022 - the social care levy will come into effect, with a 1.25% increase in national insurance contributions (NICs), with dividend tax rates increasing by the same percentage rate. It will be payable by both employers and employees who are subject to Class 1 NICs, and to the self-employed who pay Class 4 NICs. The levy will be a new tax, separate from NICs, but as it will take time for HMRC to set up on their IT systems, the tax will initially be raised through an increase in NICs. However, once HMRC have updated their IT systems, then from 2023, the new tax in the form of a 1.25% surcharge will replace the NICs increase. A major part of the 2022 employment law changes, it represents in conjunction with the tax increases announced in the March 2021 Budget, the largest increase in UK taxation in 40 years according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies
- Harpur Trust v Brazel & UNISON. The appeal was heard on the 9th November 2021 by the Supreme Court, although the outcome will not be known until sometime in 2022. The appeal is against the Court of Appeal's ruling that those working on permanent contracts are entitled to 5.6 weeks annual leave, regardless of how much time they work during that year and regardless of whether they are full time or part-time employees
Beyond The 2022 Employment Law Changes
Other potential changes that may take place beyond the 2022 employment law changes, include the following:-
- Ethnicity pay gap reporting
- The extension of the right of shared parental leave to grandparents. This change was originally expected to come in to force in 2018, but was placed on hold in May 2018 whilst the Government carried out a review into the policy of shared parental leave
- The linking of the income tax personal allowance to the national minimum wage. Although this provision is contained in the Finance (No.2) Act 2015, no firm date for its implementation has been fixed
We will continue to update this article on the 2022 employment law changes as and when there are further developments, especially in relation to the much anticipated Employment Bill
