A New Year and new laws are awaiting employers in the United Kingdom.
Many are aimed at providing incentives to businesses in order to stimulate local labour markets while others may add additional red tape to already complex human resource management programs.
This article is part of ELLINT ‘s January newsletter which provides employers with a snapshot what they need to know about new regulations which may impact their human resource management and strategies over the next 12 months around Europe.
NEED TO KNOW: NEW EMPLOYMENT & LABOUR LAWS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM 2017.
Immigration Skills Charge:
In April 2017 an Immigration Skills Charge will be introduced which is effectively a new Government fee for hiring non-EEA nationals to work in the UK. The Charge will cost employers an additional £1,000 per year for each non-EEA national employee that they sponsor to work in the UK. Employers would be best advised to bring in any new overseas sponsored staff before April 2017 to avoid this additional cost.
Gender Pay Reporting:
As of April 2017 employers with 250+ employees in the UK will be required to take a snapshot of pay data within their organisations which must be published on their websites within the following 12 months. Employers must divide their employees into 4 pay quartiles and publish data relating to the proportion of men and women in each. Other data must include the differences in average and median pay earned by the men and women and the difference in average bonuses paid to men and women within the preceding year. This new regulation intends to highlight discrepancies between male and female pay within organisations.
Affected employers are advised to implement systems and processes without delay to capture the information. It would also be helpful to carry out test runs to identify any particular pay discrepancies which might be addressed before taking the first snapshot of publishable data in April 2017. Once the data has been published it could possibly lead to an increase in the number of equal pay claims in the private sector, as well as lobbying by groups interested in pay matters within various industry and professional sectors. Employers with 250+ employees will be required to publish this data on an annual basis.
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