Age Positive

Given the imminence of the introduction of legislation against age discrimination, the Age Positive team in the Department for Work and Pensions has produced a timely guide for employers. It should also be of interest to unions.

The booklet provides a simple three-step checklist to help employers identify where their business currently stands in relation to ageist practices and highlights ways of eliminating ageism from their workplace.

The checklist covers recruitment, selection, training and development, redundancy and retirement, and tells them where to find additional help. In general, the Age Positive campaign promotes the benefits of employing a mixed-age workforce that includes older and younger people.

Childcare challenge

Finding good quality, affordable childcare can be one of the biggest challenges facing parents, and employers could be doing a lot more to help ease the financial burden on employees, according to a new childcare guide from the TUC.

Who's looking after the children? says employers could consider opening a workplace nursery that offers cheaper places to staff.  Or it suggests, a group of employers in a locality might choose to come together to offer a crèche for all employees to use.

Childcare vouchers - which are tax exempt for both employer and employee - or childcare subsidies are other popular ways of helping parents survive the childcare years.

Simple changes like allowing parents the flexibility to change their hours to fit in with nursery drop-off and pick-up times can make the world of difference, says the guide.

In workplaces where unions have been able to negotiate the introduction of term time working, annualised hours or job-share arrangements, both parents and employers have seen enormous benefits.

ACAS cuts

An inquiry by the Trade and Industry Select Committee into the work of ACAS (a DTI agency) has been urged by Thompsons to judge the service by whether it is a force for good in raising employment standards.

Both employers' and employees' organisations are concerned about the impact of the loss of 150 jobs - about 16 per cent of total staff numbers - on the service.

ACAS conciliation services cost about £400-£450 per case, as opposed to £2,000 per case for a tribunal hearing. When multiplied by the number of cases that ACAS deals with every year, the figures represent a £30 million saving to the Treasury.

The committee, which started meeting in January this year, is looking into the remit of ACAS and how it performs, both now and in the future; how ACAS contributes to increased productivity; and its general performance and accountability.

The committee's work has, however, stalled for the time being because the DTI is conducting an internal review into the agencies it funds that give advice on employment law.

Video nicety

Anyone who is in the process of making a tribunal claim should find a new video from ACAS (the Government's conciliation service) very helpful.

The video is an extract taken from the Essential Guide to Employment Tribunals DVD. Tony Cooper, an experienced ACAS conciliator, talks through what ACAS does so that claimants can avoid ending up in an employment tribunal. See the video at

http://www.acas.org.uk/conciliationvideo/index.htm.

Measuring time

Parliament has approved regulations that remove the "partly unmeasured working time" exemption from the Working Time Regulations (WTR).

Under section 20(2) of the WTR, workers whose hours are predetermined (say, by their contract of employment), but who volunteer to do more hours, are not protected by the regulations during those extra hours.

Go to: www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2006/20060099.htm to access the statutory instrument.

TUPE guidance

Although the revised TUPE regulations (due to come into force on 1 April 2006) have not yet been published, the DTI has already issued guidance about them.

The Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 will make a number of changes to the current law that will be covered in detail in April's LELR. The main changes include:

  • widening the regulations to cover cases where services are outsourced, insourced or assigned to a client by a new contractor (known as "service provision changes")
  • a new duty on a transferor to supply information (called "employee liability information") to the new employer about transferring employees
  • provisions clarifying how employers and employees can agree to vary contracts
  • provisions clarifying the circumstances under which it is unfair for employers to dismiss employees for reasons connected with a relevant transfer.

Employment timetable

The DTI has published a list of regulatory changes due to come into force this year.

There are two main commencement dates - 1 April 2006 and 1 October 2006. The list includes:

  • minor pensions amendments to the Information and Consultation Regulations (April)
  • revisions to the TUPE regulations (April)
  • legislation to outlaw age discrimination (October)
  • annual revision of the National Minimum Wage (October)
  • extensions to the scope of the dispute resolution procedures (October)
  • changes under the Work and Families Bill (October)
  • amendments to the law on collective redundancies (October).


Go to www.dti.gov.uk/ewt/common_comence5.htm to access the change.

Consult on pensions

Employers will soon have to consult their employees before making certain changes to occupational and personal pension schemes.

The Occupational and Personal Pension Schemes (Consultation by Employers and Miscellaneous Amendment) Regulations 2006 are due to come into force on 6 April, and will apply initially to businesses with more than 150 employees. That will come down to 100 in April 2007, and to 50 in April 2008.

The draft regulations set out a default method for information and consultation, if nothing else has been agreed with trade unions or under the Information and Consultation Regulations.

Go to www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2006/draft/20063891.htm to access the regulations.

Family friendly drafts

As well as all the other changes to the law recently announced by the DTI, it has now published draft regulations on family-related leave and flexible working. All are due to take effect in April 2007:

  • The Maternity and Parental Leave (Amendment) Regulations 2006 will introduce a number of changes, including 'Keeping in Touch Days', allowing mothers to work for a limited number of days during their statutory maternity pay period without losing their entitlement.
  • The Paternity and Adoption Leave (Amendment) Regulations 2006 will amend provisions relating to adoption leave in the Paternity and Adoption Leave Regulations 2002.
  • The Flexible Working (Eligibility, Complaints and Remedies) (Amendment) Regulations 2006 will give carers the right to request to work flexibly.
    Also included in the consultation is the proposal to extend statutory paid maternity leave from six months to nine, along with the introduction of a new right for mothers to transfer a proportion of their maternity leave and pay to fathers. These are to be introduced as part of the Work and Families Bill (currently going through Parliament), and other legislation.

The closing date for consultation is 18 April 2006.