A COUNTY lawyer has urged businesses to be prepared with sweeping changes to employment laws this week.
Sally Morris, partner and head of employment law at Worcester law firm mfg Solicitors in The Tything, is warning firms after the government introduced wide-ranging reforms from today.
Part of updates to the Employment Rights Bill, they will include ‘day one’ rights for unfair dismissal claims and statutory sick pay as well as changes to fire and rehire rules, collective redundancy consultations, zero-hour contracts and parental leave.
Ms Morris said: “From April 6 a range of Whitehall-led changes to UK employment legislation come into effect which will now see businesses across the region having to be on top of how the changes will impact their compliance requirements.
“These annual statutory rate updates, which were announced last year, will see significant changes around sick pay, parental leave and a whole host of other employment legislation.
“One of the most high-profile changes will be the abolishment of the current three-day waiting period for statutory sick pay.
“Essentially, it will remove the requirement for an employee’s earnings to be at least the lower earnings limit.
“This means it will be paid from the first day of sickness rather than the fourth day.
“The lower earnings limit will also be removed which means all employees will qualify regardless of their earnings.
“Also, in what is a major change, the qualifying period for both parental and paternity...
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