Be prepared for Employment Changes in 2018

A new year brings a whole host of new changes to employment. Tim lets us know what we can expect for 2018.

By Tim Frear

As we’re fast approaching the end of the year it’s time to look forward and plan for the new year, as well as the changes to employees and employment law.

Brexit will undoubtedly influence employment, but as this is planned for March 2019, I will leave the speculation for another year! What we do know is that April 2018 will bring the first reporting on the ‘Gender Pay Gap’. For employers with more than 250 employees, they will have to report on the differences in pay between men and women based on their figures on 5^th April 2018.

There is also a plan under foot to make changes to tax-free termination payments. The consultation period ended in October this year and we are still awaiting the outcome. If approved, this will be implemented in April 2018.

Aside from Brexit, perhaps the other well-document case is GDPR. On the 25^th May 2018 the General Data Protection Regulations come into force. Most companies will have started to plan and prepare for the implementation with information audits, new policies and effective communication. The ICO have a 12-step program for all companies that will help them prepare, with big fines attached to noncompliance, it’s worth the review now. For more information, see my blog on GDPR.

Now to speak of one my own mum will love. A year and a half ago, David Cameron’s government started a process to allow grandparents to take shared parental leave from their children. This was due to be implemented in April 2018, however Theresa May’s government have not yet agreed or decided whether to go ahead, if this does proceed, it will add another level of care for children.

Other than the GDPR and the gender pay gap reporting, it looks like a quiet year on the employment law side. It will be interesting to see what happens with the levels of tribunals submitted in 2018 following the recent drop of the tribunal fee – how many genuine cases are lost in the system due to the volume of malicious claims against employers?

I would envisage 2019 will be the year of change for employers within the UK, with Brexit coming into force in March 2019 and EU legislation being taken in-house, but I guess we will have to wait and see…

If you’d like any more information on employment changes, get in touch with one of our HR Heroes!