With the pandemic still dominating the agenda, on the face of it, there is very little new legislation or changes to legislation and therefore 2022 looks to be a relatively quiet year in terms of confirmed employment law changes. However, that could change depending on what happens with the Omicron variant. It’s therefore possible we may see temporary restrictions and changes introduced during the year.
Temporary SSP Changes
A reminder that one of those temporary changes: SSP self certification rules, is due to end on 26th January and return to 7 days (from the current 28 days). However, watch out for any extension to this.
Also, the Government has re-introduced the SSP Rebate Scheme. Companies will, once again, be able to claim back SSP payments for Covid-related absences from day 1. This scheme will be reintroduced from mid-January 2022. The scheme is being re-introduced in mid-January and we are waiting on further guidance.
No Jab – No Job!
So far, we have seen vaccines made mandatory for all front line NHS workers. The question this year is whether we will see that extended to other workers!
We are also starting to see tribunals being held for covid related cases, such as redundancies during furlough, furlough, long covid and health and safety breaches.
Working from Home
The Government is continuing to advise that staff work from home where they can. This is only advice – not a mandatory requirement.
In its guidance, the advice is anyone who cannot work from home should continue to go into work – for example, to access equipment necessary for their role or where their role must be completed in person. Where staff are attending the office, ensure that your risk assessment is carried out and kept up to date. Also ensure that all appropriate safety measures are in place. Ensure you communicate it to your staff so they know the steps you are taking to protect them.
As well as those who have to attend the workplace, employers should also consider how working from home has affected mental health and if an employee is better working in the office and would prefer that, and also those with challenging home working environments.
The proposed Employment Bill
The government has been promising to publish a new Employment Bill since January 2020. It’s recently announced a number of consultations which suggests that it may start to push ahead with its manifesto commitment to ‘protect and enhance’ worker rights. Some of those consultations include: –
- Flexible Working – Amending the flexible working rules so that employees can ask to a change their working hours or the days on which they work from the first day of their employment and requiring businesses to consider alternatives before turning down a request. It is also considering reducing the three month time limit employers currently have to respond.
- Caring Responsibilities – Introducing a right for employees with long-term caring responsibilities to take up to one week’s unpaid leave each year which can be taken in a block or as individual days or half days.
- Right to a more predictable contract – Giving all workers the right to request a more predictable contract. This proposal was aimed at protecting people in insecure work, particularly workers engaged on casual or zero hours contracts who often don’t know week to week what hours they will be offered, and providing compensation for short notice shift cancellations.
- Neonatal Leave and Pay for employees – Introducing a right for parents of babies that require neonatal care to take neonatal leave. It is expected that the amount of leave will be one week for every week that the baby is in neonatal care up to a maximum of 12 weeks. This will be paid leave, with parents being entitled to a statutory rate of pay set by the Government each year.
- Redundancy Protection – The government has also promised to improve redundancy protection for pregnant employees and maternity returners by giving them priority for alternative employment opportunities if made redundant, with similar protections for parents returning from adoption or shared parental leave.
- The establishment of a single labour market enforcement agency, responsible for enforcing basic rights for vulnerable workers.
- Requiring employers to pass on all tips and service charges to their workers.
Bank Holiday
There will be an additional bank holiday in 2022. Normally the Spring Bank Holiday takes place on the last Monday in May. However, to mark the Queen’s Jubilee, this year, it will be moved to Thursday 2nd June. There will be an additional Bank Holiday will then take place on Friday 3rd June.
Whether employees are automatically entitled to the additional bank holiday will depend upon the wording in their contract. Please refer to my guidance for more detail on whether staff are entitled to the additional bank holiday as paid leave, or not.
Right to Work checks
Due to the pandemic, and as a temporary adjustment, the Home Office allowed for right-to-work checks to be carried out remotely. From 5th April 2022, these adjustments will come to an end and employers must return to full right-to-work checks. This entails either carrying out a manual right to work check using original documentation, or an online right to work check using one of the online checking services.
If you would like any further advice on the above, or a no obligation chat about how Hill HR could help your business, we’d love to help you. Simply contact us to arrange a conversation or why not book a slot in my calendar for a quick chat.
