the major employment law changes of 2015 that will affect your business

<p><strong>–         The General Election in May will have major impact on law this year</strong></p> <p><strong>–         The SPL or Shared Parental Leave became law on December 1, 2014</strong></p> <p><strong>–         Businesses across the UK must now make changes to their employment law policies to deal with these new changes</strong></p> <p><strong>–          Those who don’t pay the National Minimum Wage risk a £20k fine</strong></p> <p>As we get into the swing of 2015 and business owners start planning for the next 12 months, it is always good to understand how the law will affect your business.</p> <p>Last year, we saw a number of changes that had an impact on businesses and this year there are plans to alter the legislation in certain areas. Below we have summarised the main employment law changes likely to influence you.</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p>–         SPL or shared parental leave will now include parents of children who will be born or placed into adoption on or after 5 April 2015.</p> <p>–         The Paternity and Adoption Leave (Amendment) Regulations 2014 will amend the Paternity and Adoption Leave Regulations 2002.  This means that employees will no longer have to be employed in service for 26 to qualify for adoption leave.</p> <p>–         The Shared Parental Leave and Paternity and Adoption Leave (Adoptions from Overseas) Regulations 2014 and the Statutory Shared Parental Pay (Adoption from Overseas) Regulations 2014. In a nutshell, it extends the right of shared parental leave and pay to those who adopt from abroad.</p> <p> </p> <p>–         Single and joint adopters will have a new right to attend adoption appointments.</p> <p>–         If you have parents in your workplace with children aged 18 and under, you will have to allow them the right to take unpaid parental leave. Currently, this only applies to parents with a child<strong> </strong>under the age of 5 or 18 if they are disabled.</p> <p>–         The provisions of the Paternity and Adoption Leave (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2014.  It extends the rights for parents or individuals fostering a child under the “Fostering for Adoption” scheme.</p> <p> </p> <p>–         Are you Fit for Work? Those employees who have absent for over four weeks to be provided with health assessments and assistance.</p> <p> </p> <p>–         Quite a significant change from a tribunal perspective and one which <a href="http://www.d-w-s.co.uk/services/employment-law/">our employment lawyers</a> have been doing seminars on. This will see the two year cap on backdated holiday pay claims come into force.</p> <p> </p> <p>–         Historically, this month has always been known as the National minimum wage month.<strong> </strong>Expect a hike in the minimum rates you can pay to employees.</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p>Those employers who do not pay the national minimum wage could be a hit with a £20,000 maximum penalty for each worker that is underpaid.</p> <p>Those people who are legally bound under the whistleblowing legislation will have to product annual reports disclosing everything that they have been told.  However, it will not disclose the names of the “whistleblowers”.</p> <p>No doubt, May will be the biggest month for businesses this year.</p> <p>The General Election takes place on May 7^th2015. Whichever party comes into force will have a huge say on how businesses operate.</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p>If you like this post, then tweet it by pasting the below URL to your social media feed <a href="http://tinyurl.com/oku9fzz">http://tinyurl.com/oku9fzz</a></p> <p> </p>