Scots employers advised to prepare for new employment laws

SCOTS EMPLOYERS are being urged to “stay on their toes” as new employment laws come into play from April 1.

One change is to the way holiday leave and pay is calculated for part-year and irregular hours workers.

Next week employers will have different options about how to the assess holiday entitlement and pay for these types of workers and are likely to have a significant impact on sectors such as leisure and hospitality.

These changes coincide with the rise in the National Minimum Wage, which increases by £1.02 per hour to £11.44.

Kate Wyatt, a partner in employment law at Scottish legal firm Lindsays, said: “This spring’s raft of changes means businesses are best advised to stay on their toes and prepare for the new rules as they come into force.

“When it comes to holidays for part-year or irregular hours workers, employers will have options for calculating holiday entitlement as 12.07% of the hours worked in a pay period and rolling pay for that entitlement up as an addition to basic pay.”

She added: “These rules are complex and need careful implementation. They do not apply to regular hours workers.”

New rules will also start for redundancy-related protections, on April 6, for employees who are pregnant or on maternity or family leave.

Currently staff on maternity or other family leave, whose jobs are redundant, are entitled to be offered available alternative employment in preference to other at-risk staff. This is until their period of leave ends.

However, the new rules mean that enhanced protection will begin when an employee informs their employers that they are pregnant, and this will extend to 18 months after the child’s birth.

Even though there are some requirements to qualify, this new rule means the number of staff with priority for other roles should increase.

Changes are also being made to flexible working on April 6, with employees having the right to request this from their first day on the job, as well as being able to make two applications in a 12-month period.

This is a change as currently employees can only request flexible working after 26 weeks in their post.

Additionally, in September, workers should be permitted to request more “predictable” terms and conditions where the is a “lack of predictablitity” over working patterns.

Ms Wyatt advises: “Key to managing all of these changes will be a review and refresh of policies, procedures and staff training – especially for management who will be implementing the new rules – along with an update of record keeping arrangements to ensure appropriate detail is captured and retained.

“For employers planning staffing changes, an awareness of enhanced redundancy protections and an understanding of new rules among managers along with access to relevant records will be vital.”