National Minimum Wage increases
The Government has recently accepted the Low Pay Commission’s recommendations for new National Minimum Wage (NMW) rates. The new rates are effective from April 2022:
| 6 April 2022 – 5 April 2023 | 6 April 2021 – 5 April 2022 | |
|---|---|---|
| Statutory Maternity Rate (SMP), Paternity (SPP), Adoption (SAP) and Shared Parental Pay (ShPP) | £151.20 per week | £151.20 per week |
| Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) | £95.85 per week | £95.85 per week |
| The lower earnings limit | £120.00 per week | £120.00 per week |
| Workers aged 23 and over
(National living wage has been lowered from 25 to 23 with effect from 01/04/2021) | £9.50 an hour (national living wage) | £8.91 an hour (national living wage) |
| Workers aged 21 and over | £9.18 an hour | £8.36 an hour |
| Development rate for workers aged 18-20 | £6.83 an hour | £6.56 an hour |
| Young workers rate for workers aged 16-17 | £4.81 an hour | £4.62 an hour |
| Apprentice rate | £4.81 an hour | £4.30 an hour |
Training events
Details of our recent and upcoming general admission training events will be shown here. Please do get in touch if you have any specific HR training requirements for your business or team.
| Training Topic | Your Hosts | What will be covered | Date & Venue Details |
|---|---|---|---|
| CALCULATING THE COST OF ABSENCE
A half day interactive seminar covering employee absenteeism in the workplace | People Team Solutions and CE Back Office | Are you sick of feeling confused when dealing with employee absence? This session will give you the confidence to manage absence effectively.
Topics include: the cost of sickness in the workplace; statutory vs contractual sick pay; repeated absence; paperwork; sickness and maternity; sickness and holidays; absence and parents; reducing absenteeism in the workplace. | To Be Confirmed |
GDPR
On May 25th 2018, the EU implemented the General Data Protection Regulation, referred to commonly as GDPR. The regulation is intended to govern the way businesses get and retain personal data.
There are some key areas of focus given to HR teams across the country to ensure the security and legitimacy of use of employee data.
Key changes:
- Increased “consent” that is specific, informed and unambiguous in obtaining permission to retain personal data as well as the ability for an employee to remove their consent (and ensure systems are capable of doing so)
- Legally unable to utilise data for any other purpose than that “consented”
- Requirement to provide detailed and documented reasons for why data is collected and stored
- Awareness of employees that they may have FREE access to their personal data by way of a Subject Access Request (SAR)
- Retained information must be kept for only the time strictly necessary unless specific consent has been given. Examples include, in the case of an unsuccessful candidate, data must be deleted unless consent was given to retain for other future potential roles as well as temporary employees or leavers information must also be deleted
- Ensuring the security of all data stored by the company is safeguarded appropriately. In some cases, information may require encryption as well as limiting the need to share information wherever possible. In the case that a company uses third parties, it is the responsibility of the company to ensure all relevant security measures are in place.
- Should there be a breach in data security, the individual should be advised within 72 hours of the breach being identified. In larger organisations or companies holding high levels of sensitive personal data, it is expected that a Data Protection Officer is appointed to oversee security and prevent breaches from occurring.
- Violations of the GDPR can result in significant fines up to €20 million (£17.7 million) or 4% of annual turnover (whichever is greater).
For advice and support to ensure you meet the needs of GDPR, get in touch here today.
Chartered MCIPD
