We round up the latest employment news.
Government U-turns on cancelling IR35 off payroll rules
Less than a month ago, the government announced that it would repeal the IR35 off payroll rules from the start of the new tax year in April 2023. Those plans have now been scrapped by the new chancellor, Jeremy Hunt.
This means that most businesses and organisations will need to continue carrying out status determination statements when engaging individual consultants via intermediaries such as personal service companies, and to pay any tax required.
If your organisation gets the status determination wrong, it will be liable for the tax and national insurance contributions. The 12-month grace period (which provided some leniency for organisations making genuine mistakes) ended in April 2022. This means that if you make a mistake, you'll also have to pay penalties and interest. To find out how we can help you make the right call, please click here.
Unions issue legal challenge about using agency workers to cover strike action
On Thursday 21 July 2022, new legislation came into force allowing employers to use agency workers to fill staffing gaps caused by industrial strike action. A number of unions have come together to challenge that legislation on the basis that it undermines the right to strike protected under the European Convention on Human Rights. They also argue that the government has violated the Employment Agencies Act 1973 by failing to consult with representative bodies before setting out the new regulations.
You can read more about the changes here.
Unemployment falls to a 50-year low but long-term sickness reaches record high
According to the Office for National Statistics, unemployment in the UK fell to 3.5% in the three months to August 2022 from a previous level of 3.8%, dropping to the lowest level since February 1974.
But there’s been a sharp rise in the number of working-age adults who are neither employed, or looking for work. Almost 9 million people are inactive with the biggest increases in the 50-64 and 16-24 age groups. Around 2.5 million people are inactive because of long-term health problems. These include people with long COVID and those who are waiting for treatment on the NHS.
Thousands more small and medium-sized businesses will qualify for reporting and regulatory exemptions
The government has announced a change to the threshold used to determine whether a business is small enough that it should be exempt from certain reporting requirements and regulations (such as gender pay gap reporting).
Historically, the government's starting assumption has been that businesses with less than 50 employees should be exempt from the more onerous reporting requirements and regulations. This will now change to encompass businesses with less than 500 employees.
The new threshold came into force on Monday 3 October 2022 and applies to all regulations. The government will also look at plans to consult in the future on potentially extending the threshold to businesses with 1,000 employees, once the impact on the current extension is known.
Call for evidence: review of hybrid and distance learning
The government has brought forward the deadline to comment on its review of hybrid and distance learning to Friday 28 October 2022.
New draft guidance on workplace monitoring
The Information Commissioner’s Office has launched a consultation on draft guidance on monitoring at work to help employers understand the law and adopt good practice. It’s asking for feedback on this document and any other insights from stakeholders until Wednesday 11 January 2023.
Most searched excuses to miss work
New research into the volume of Google searches for excuses to miss work reveals that searches have risen dramatically over the course of the last 2 years. The ten most popular searches include ‘best excuses for missing work’, ‘realistic excuses for missing work’ and ‘believable excuses for missing work’.
Read more - October 2022
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