April sees the first tranche of new laws for 2009. The key changes are:

1. The repeal of the statutory dispute resolution procedures

The Employment Act 2008 repeals the statutory dispute resolution procedures in their entirety and introduces a regime based on a new Acas Code for disciplinary and grievance procedures.

Importantly, under the new regime dismissals will no longer be automatically unfair for a failure to comply with the Acas Code, but Employment Tribunals will still be able increase or reduce compensatory awards. Such adjustments will be by up to 25% (rather than the previous 10-50%) where either the employer or employee has unreasonably failed to comply with the Code and the adjustment is just and equitable in all the circumstances.

Employers should bear in mind that there are transitional provisions that determine whether a disciplinary or grievance procedure will be covered by the old or the new regime. In some cases the statutory dispute resolution procedures will continue to apply to grievances until October this year.

2. Employment Tribunal Procedures streamlined

New Employment Tribunal Rules of Procedure will apply to applications for extension of time, issuing and reviewing default judgments and dismissing claims on the withdrawal of proceedings. In particular, from 6 April claims in relation to payment of leave entitlement will be able to be heard by an employment judge sitting alone.

3. Changes affecting Employment Agencies

From 6 April 2009, the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate (which carries out routine inspections of employment agencies and investigates complaints) will be given additional inspection powers. Further, offences currently dealt with by Magistrates courts may also be dealt with by Crown courts, where the fine that can be imposed is unlimited, so allowing much heavier punishment of non-compliant agencies.

4. Increases to statutory sick pay and maternity, paternity and adoption pay

The weekly rate of SSP will be increased to £79.15 (from £75.40) and the weekly rate of SMP, SPP and SAP will be increased to £123.06 (from £117.18). Other proposals under discussion to increase SMP to the full 12 months of statutory maternity leave and to introduce additional paternity leave and additional statutory paternity pay have been delayed until at least 2010.

5. Increase in statutory annual holiday entitlement

Under the Working Time (Amendment) Regulations 2007, statutory annual leave will be increased to 5.6 weeks from 1 April 2009. This is equivalent to 28 days holiday for employees who work a five day working week. Note that there is still no statutory right to time off (paid or otherwise) on any Bank or public holiday and the statutory holiday entitlement is intended to cover any such days which are taken. If this change affects your employees it's not necessary to consult about the changes or to update existing employees' contracts of employment. However, employees should be informed in writing of their increased holiday entitlement.

The extension of the right to request flexible working to parents of children up to the age of 16 was originally expected during April 2009. However, no date has yet been announced and given the current pressures on employers during the economic downturn no progress on this issue is expected in the foreseeable future.

This article was written for Law-Now, CMS Cameron McKenna's free online information service. To register for Law-Now, please go to www.law-now.com/law-now/mondaq

Law-Now information is for general purposes and guidance only. The information and opinions expressed in all Law-Now articles are not necessarily comprehensive and do not purport to give professional or legal advice. All Law-Now information relates to circumstances prevailing at the date of its original publication and may not have been updated to reflect subsequent developments.

The original publication date for this article was 17/03/2009.