Limit On Week’s Pay Increasing to £380

From 1 October 2009, the limit on a week’s pay for the purposes of calculating a statutory redundancy payment will rise from £350 to £380.

This increase will also apply to a wide range of employment tribunal awards – calculated using a week’s pay.

As this change is taking place in October rather than  February 2010, there will be no change to the limit on a week’s pay next year.

Any non-contractual redudancy pay calculations where notice is given on or after 1 October will need to reflect the new rates.

AMiE Dismay As Opt-Out Stays

Commenting on the fact that Britain’s opt-out of the 48 hour working week is set to continue after talks between MEPs and Ministers broke down, AMiE’s Director of Employment Services, David Green said,

“I find it very disappointing that a Labour government should describe this outcome as ‘protection’ for the opt-out. Surely there is no reason for pride when you are in effect giving employers the green light to continue the long hours culture.

“The 48 hour limit is a safety measure designed to protect workers from the recognised ill health effects of working excessive hours. Yet allowing individuals to opt-out is not only bad for health, it creates a serious barrier to reducing working time and improving worklife balance in our sector. Keeping the opt-out means there is no incentive for employers to look seriously at how work is organised and managed.”

In a survey of members carried out last year ACM found that two out of three members worked in excess of an average of 48 hours per week, and almost 17% worked over 60 a week. The survey also found that four out of five members said they faced excessive demands in terms of workload and targets, a key factor in the cause of work related stress.

Statutory Compensation Limits To Rise

The limit on a week’s pay is increasing on 1 February from the current £330 to £350. It is used in statutory redundancy pay calculations and basic tribunal awards, . This means that the maximum statutory redundancy pay that anyone can receive will be £10,500.

When the Redundancy Payments Scheme was introduced in 1965, the statutory limit on a week’s pay was £40. That was twice the average pay packet of the time. If it has been uprated in line with earnings it would today stand at over £1000.

The maximum compensatory award for unfair dismissal is also increasing on 1st February, and will rise from £63,000 to £66,200. In reality though, compensation awarded by tribunals is considerably less than this with an average for unfair dismissal of just £7,974 in 2007, and half of all awards coming in below £3800.

More Hostility Towards Disabled and Long Term Sick

Disabled people and those with long term ill-health are facing higher levels of hostile and negative treatment in the workplace according to new research published by the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

In a survey of nearly 4000 workers, the British Workplace Behaviour Survey 2008, conducted by Cardiff University and the University of Glamorgan, found employees with a disability or long-term illness reported they were more likely to have negative experiences at work. These experiences range from low expectations of workers, bullying and humiliation to, in some cases, physical violence. Findings included:

• 25% of people with a disability or long-term illness said someone was continually checking up on them and their work when it was not necessary compared to 19.4% of people without a disability or long-term illness.
• 22.5% of people with a disability or long-term illness said they had been the subject to persistent unfair  criticism of their work and performance compared to 13.4% of people without a disability or long-term illness.
• 13.4% of people with a disability or long-term illness said they had been humiliated or ridiculed in connection with their work compared to 8.7% for people without a disability or long-term

Ahead of the upcoming Equality Bill, the Commission will ask whether existing equality laws provide clear enough protection to disabled individuals at risk of bullying and harassment at work, for example, in relation to ill-treatment by clients or customers.

As the Government moves to introduce welfare reforms designed to enable more disabled people to enter work, the Commission hopes the issues raised in today’s report will be addressed.

Nicola Brewer, Chief Executive of the Equality and Human Rights Commission said: “In these difficult economic times we must do all we can to help as many people as possible to stay in work. If disabled people and those with long-term ill health are more likely to experience hostile and negative treatment at work, we risk losing both their talent and their economic contribution.

“Disabled people and those with long term ill-health should be supported to get into, or back into, work, but they’ll only stay in work if they are treated with dignity and respect.”

A copy of the research report can be downloaded from the EHRC website.

SENCO Regulations Before Parliament

The Education (Special Educational Needs Co-ordinators) (England) Regulations 2008 (SI 2008/2945) were laid before Parliament on 21 November. The Regulations introduce a new requirement for SENCOs to be qualified teachers, fulfilling earlier commitments made to Parliament. This requirement will ensure that the SENCO has the standing to influence differentiated teaching and learning matched to pupils’ individual needs.

The Regulations are due to come into effect on 1 September 2009, but allow for a two-year transitional period, for SENCOs who are not currently teachers, but who have been in post for at least six months as at 31 August 2009, to gain Qualified Teacher Status by September 2011. This period will allow schools that may be affected to make any necessary staffing adjustments.

Some of the SENCO functions will continue to be undertaken by other staff, including teaching assistants, and they will continue to make a significant and important contribution to improving the achievement and well-being of pupils with SEN and disabilities. However, the person designated by the school governing body as responsible for co-ordinating overall provision for pupils with SEN and disabilities i.e. the person with the lead responsibility, will need to be a qualified teacher. The Regulations also allow for headteachers or acting headteachers to carry out the role.

(Source: TeacherNet)

Boost For Disability Equality in Colleges

An initiative designed to promote equality for disabled people in post-compulsory education was kick-started yesterday with its first official pledge from a further education college.

The Disability Equality Commitment, facilitated by Lifelong Learning UK, is a framework to help organisations in further education recruit, retain, and train disabled employees so that they are equally represented in the sector. Liverpool Community College became the first institution to sign up and commit to disability equality in this way.

Maureen Mellor MBE, Principal of Liverpool Community College, signed the pledge at this week’s Association of Colleges conference, in the company of Paul Mackney, the Chair of the Disability Equality Implementation Group which launched the initiative. The College has a proven record in striving for equality and diversity. 15 per cent of its learners class themselves as having a disability, alongside seven per cent of staff.

Maureen Mellor, said: “Liverpool Community College has a distinct action plan on disability equality – we have a disability staff group; we have undertaken a major training project with 1,000 staff taking part in sessions on equality awareness; and each year we hold a diversity event to celebrate and raise awareness of the different talents, skills and needs of our learners and staff.

“We are delighted to be the first further education college to sign up to the Disability Equality Commitment. We recognise our duty to all our staff and learners and strive to provide the best service for them. In turn we hope that individuals benefit from the opportunities that are created”.

Disabled people make up one fifth of the UK’s working age population, but face significant
disadvantages in the world of work. They are 50 per cent less likely to have a degree than nondisabled people, and twice as likely to have no qualifications at all. They are also 25 per cent less likely to be employed than the population as a whole.* The Disability Equality Commitment aims to positively address those inequalities in further education.

Paul Mackney, Chair of the Disability Equality Implementation Group, said “Our learners deserve to engage with the very best staff, irrespective of their age, disability, gender, race, religion or belief or sexual orientation. We know from Lifelong Learning UK’s Annual Workforce Diversity Profile that the level of staff disclosure about disability has fallen this year, which is why it’s more important than ever that colleges and other lifelong learning providers demonstrate a commitment to promoting disability equality. We’re delighted that Liverpool Community College is forging the way by signing up to the Disability Equality Commitment in Lifelong Learning, and, for the sake of all learners and staff, we would encourage others to do the same.”

New Acas Code On Discipline and Grievances Is Approved

Acas’s revised Code of Practice has been approved by the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform. It will now be put before Parliament for its final ratification until which time it will remain a draft.

The Code is due to come into effect on 6 April 2009.

The revised Code provides broad principles on discipline and grievance handling in the workplace. It will be complemented by a non-statutory Acas Guide providing more detailed good practice advice.

A final version of this Guide will be placed on the Acas website as soon as possible but in the meantime, you can download a copy of the draft document.

Commenting on the new Code, AMiE Director of Employment Services, David Green, said, “This revised version is clearly better than the first draft, and has met some of the concerns raised by ACM and ATL. For example, there is a little more clarity on how to investigate a problem and how to deal with hearings. Overall though it remains a little disappointing and unless the promised guidance is sufficiently detailed and helpful, then many employers will continue to get away with bad practices.”

The Employment Bill, which will abolish the current statutory dispute procedures, and which paved the way for the new Code, has received royal assent and is now the Employment Act 2008.

TUC Welcomes Move Towards Scrapping 48 Hour Opt-Out

Responding to today’s decision by the employment social affairs committee of the European Parliament to scrap the Working Time Directive opt-out by 35 votes to 13, TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said:

“Workers across the UK will be heartened by the committee’s vote to end the opt-out from the 48 hour week.

“Our long hours culture, which has been shored up by the opt-out, has risked the health of many workers. Regularly working more than 48 hours increases the chance of suffering from heart disease and stress related illness, as well as diabetes and other ailments.

“The vast majority of long hours workers want to move to a better work-life balance and are hungry for change. Today’s vote is a welcome step towards ending the opt-out and the pressure will now be on the European Parliament to ratify the decision next month.”

Final Stages Of Employment Bill

Measures the government says will simplify workplace dispute resolution reach their final stages today with the report and third reading of the Employment Bill in the House of Commons. The changes should mean earlier, more informal resolution of workplace disputes.

The Employment Bill responds to the Gibbons Review of dispute resolution.  As part of a wider package aimed at encouraging early resolution of workplace problems it repeals the Statutory Dispute Resolution Regulations, introduced in 2004. The package includes:

• More discretion for tribunals – awards to be adjusted up or down by up to 25% at tribunal’s discretion, if party or parties fail unreasonably to comply with a revised Acas Code on discipline and grievance.
• A revised Acas Code, drafted to be concise and principles-based, so as to encompass reasonable behaviour. It will be supported by non-statutory guidance to provide more help to those who need it.
• An enhanced Acas Helpline, with more capacity, to provide clear advice on options.
• More pre-claim Acas conciliation, with the time-limits on post-claim conciliation removed.

The first draft of the new Acas Code of Practice was strongly criticised by AMiE partner ACM as well other trades unions when it was published earlier this year. David Green, AMiE’s Director of Employment Services said, “Although we welcome repeal of the cumbersome statutory dispute resolution regulations, we still need a framework that protects employees from bad practice and enshrines rights to fair treatment. Sadly the draft Acas code was seriously flawed. We just hope that in it’s final form it addresses our concerns.”

The Government is providing up to £37 million, over three years, helping Acas provide more conciliation and boost the effectiveness of its helpline and advice services. The new system is set to come into force in April 2009.

Suspension of Extension to Family Rights Will Not Save Jobs

Responding to reports today (Monday) that the Government plans to suspend the extension of the right to request flexible working to parents of older children and paid maternity leave, TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said:

“We find these reports hard to believe. Postponing a simple right to request flexible working would not save a single job in the small business sector. If such a request harms the business, the owner can say no.

“This would be an astonishingly irrelevant response to the severe economic downturn that we face and, in addition, would run the risk of sending a message to working parents that the Government is not on their side.”