One of the county’s leading employment lawyers has urged business to ensure they are prepared and have ‘ticked all the boxes’ ahead of sweeping changes to Employment laws.

Sally Morris, partner and head of employment at law firm mfg Solicitors, has taken steps to warn firms across the county as the Government prepares to introduce wide-ranging reforms from 6 April.

The changes are part of updates to the Employment Rights Bill and will include “day one” rights for unfair dismissal claims and Statutory Sick Pay, as well as changes to fire and rehire rules, collective redundancy consultations, zero-hour contracts and parental leave.

Sally Morris said: “From 6 April, a range of Whitehall-led changes to UK employment legislation come into effect which will now see businesses across the region having to be on top of how the changes will impact their compliance requirements.

“These annual statutory rate updates, which were announced last year, will see significant changes around sick pay, parental leave and a whole host of other employment legislation.

“One of the most high-profile changes will be the abolishment of the current three-day waiting period for Statutory Sick Pay. Essentially, it will remove the requirement for an employee’s earnings to be at least the lower earnings limit. This means it will be paid from the first day of sickness, rather than the fourth day. The lower earnings limit will also be removed which means all employees will qualify regardless of their earnings. 

“Also, in what is a major change, the qualifying period for both parental and paternity leave will be removed, meaning employees will be entitled to these rights from their first day of employment. Meanwhile, the restriction on taking paternity leave and receiving statutory paternity pay, following a period of shared parental leave and shared parental pay, has also been removed.

“Another key area of change has seen an increase in the collective redundancy protective award. This has doubled from 90 days’ pay to 180 days, meaning that if a business makes large scale redundancies without consulting staff properly, tribunals have the ability to award much higher compensation.

“This is being introduced alongside a change in sexual harassment laws and will formally qualify as a whistleblowing disclosure under UK law. This will mean protection from detriment and unfair dismissal for whistleblowers making a sexual harassment disclosure.

“This is just a summary of the key and important changes employers must be aware off. They will affect workplace policies, and we continue to advise dozens of businesses on the best ways to implement them, including checklists to ensure every single angle is covered.”

Businesses looking for last minute advice can email Sally through This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

mfg Solicitors has offices in the Black Country, Worcester, Kidderminster, Bromsgrove, Birmingham, Ludlow and Telford. Further information can be found on www.mfgsolicitors.com.