The Employment Relations Unit (ERU) provides comprehensive advice on all aspects of employment relations and practices. Our employment law and policy advisers keep authorities up-to-date on the human resources implications of new legislation and case law developments.
Our services are aimed at local authority needs.
Latest advisory bulletin
Advisory Bulletin 681 contains information on the workforce implications of COVID-19, including changes that we have made to the COVID-19 resources on our website relating to the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, two more NJC circulars and joint school workforce guidance on quarantine. There also details of an amendment to the Test and Trace employer guidance; the announcement regarding the pausing of shielding; the publication of the COVID-19 adult social care risk reduction framework; a House of Commons briefing paper on the return to work; the delay to the reporting of trade union facility time; the Information Commissioner’s Office coronavirus information hub and temporary changes to tax and national insurance treatment of reimbursed home office expenses. In other news, there is a Government call for evidence on workplace support for victims of domestic abuse; Acas has published guidance to mark the 50th anniversary of the Equal Pay Act; there is a report on the EAT decision of Ferguson and others v Astrea Asset Management Ltd concerning the validity of beneficial changes to employment contracts in the context of a TUPE transfer and reference to the fact that the Supreme Court has granted permission for the appeal in the term-time only holiday pay case of The Harpur Trust v Brazel to proceed.
Gender pay gap reporting – suspension
The Government and the Equality and Human Rights Commission have today issued a statement suspending enforcement for this year’s gender pay gap reporting due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
Exit payments cap
In 2015 the government first announced plans to introduce a cap on exit payments in the public sector. The cap includes any pension strain cost. The cap was legislated for in the Enterprise Act 2016, which amends the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015, but required secondary legislation to be introduced.
On 10 April 2019, HM Treasury opened a consultation on draft regulations, Directions and guidance to implement the exit cap. The consultation will run for 12 weeks and closes on 3 July 2019. The LGA has responded ahead of the 3 July deadline:
The document below provides a summary of the consultation and the proposed regulations for local government employers.
E-bulletins
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