Southampton: New laws to look out for in 2017 and beyond

Simon Rhodes, senior partner and head of the employment team at law firm Trethowans, looks at some of the new laws that are set to affect businesses in 2017 and beyond.

The gender pay gap

Reporting on gender pay gaps will become compulsory for private sector and voluntary organisations employing 250 or more people and the first reporting period for these organisations starts on April 30, 2017. This will force employers to be more transparent about what they’re paying to all their workers, including zero hours workers. Employers will need to calculate their gender pay gap based on mean and median figures. It seems that pay will need include to holiday pay, maternity pay and shift premiums at least.

This will no doubt be expanded to employers with fewer than 250 members of staff. 

Immigration

An Immigration Skills Surcharge is being introduced in April 2017 under which those who employ migrant workers must pay a charge of £1,000 per annum per migrant worker in addition to the other visa and sponsorship fees they’ll have paid. While there is a reduced fee of £324 for charities and small employers the new law will impact on any business that relies on the skills of foreign workers.

Powers are being introduced including giving enforcement officers the power to totally close down businesses that are employing illegal workers for 48 hours.

Data protection

The General Data Protection Regulation comes into force in May 2018. This includes more stringent requirements for consent to process personal data, data breach notification requirements and the risk-based approach to compliance. Failure to comply with some provisions could lead to businesses facing fines of the greater of 4% of annual worldwide turnover or 20 million euros. Every business needs to review its data management.

Pensions

While auto-enrolment has already come into effect for bigger businesses, from April 1 2017 all employers with less than 50 staff will have to auto-enrol their staff into a suitable pension.

Free childcare hours

The Government appears to be planning to double the number of hours of free childcare for three and four year olds in working families from 15 hours to 30 hours from September 2017. This is to be confirmed.

Termination payments

From April 2018, all payments in lieu of notice will become taxable, as will payments for injury to feelings. 

Big pay-outs for top executives in the public sector have caused public outcry over recent years. We’re expecting to see a total cap on public sector exit payments of £95,000 brought in during 2017.

Employers failing to pay awards

Where employers fail to pay awards made by an Employment Tribunal or agreed in an ACAS COT3 Agreement, a penalty of up to 50% of the shortfall will be payable to the Government.

Brexit

It is not yet clear what legal changes there will be after Brexit, but they are unlikely to take effect during 2017.

Law firm Trethowans has offices in Salisbury, Southampton, Poole and Winchester.