Tax & Legislation opinion – Page 5
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OpinionHolly Navarro: Supporting Muslim staff during Ramadan
In today’s richly diverse society, employers must demonstrate an understanding of the cultural variances of employees, and foster an inclusive working environment, ensuring multi-faith workforces are listened to and respected. An openness to making reasonable adjustments during this time will help improve employee satisfaction and embed inclusivity and diversity within ...
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OpinionMegan Parker: Could employers be obliged to pay back historical holiday underpayments?
As of now, if an employee’s holiday is incorrect, they must bring a claim forward within three months of when the deduction was made, or if a string of underpayments has been made, within three months of the last time they were underpaid for their holiday.However, this system may be ...
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OpinionLovewell's logic: Will the Spring Budget result in a larger talent pool?
News this week has been dominated by headlines about the numerous strikes taking place across the country, in bids to secure pay increases for junior doctors, teachers, rail and tube workers. The other big news this week, of course, was this year’s Spring Budget.The Budget contained myriad measures impacting the ...
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OpinionPaula Kathrens: How can employers support staff with the menopause?
The government's announcement in January this year that menopause would not become a new protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010 was very disappointing for those who had campaigned for change. The government's view is that the existing protected characteristics of sex, age and disability already provide protection against discrimination ...
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OpinionDanielle Ayres: The changing face of flexible working
The number of people working flexibly has increased drastically since the pandemic; however, as we move on from that, it seems more employers are asking staff to return to workplaces on a regular basis.Many employees have become reliant on not having to travel into work, or deal with the costs ...
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OpinionHelen Burgess: Long-term hybrid working plans key for many employers
Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, it was commonplace for most employees to spend their full working week in the office, but it would seem now that hybrid working is here to stay. While up until recently many businesses have been flexible with their policies around hybrid working, more are now ...
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OpinionEmma Burroughs and Tania Goodman: Is there a decrease in remote working jobs being advertised?
It has been widely reported that the number of fully remote roles available has dropped significantly; this is a continuing trend month on month, making the job market more competitive for those seeking such roles.Initially, many employers have taken a more relaxed approach to the return to the office, but ...
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OpinionYvonne Gallagher and Morag Ofili: Handling requests to work abroad
The way people want to work has changed drastically since the Covid-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic. A period of forced hibernation showed even the greatest of sceptics that rather than being confined to office desks, it is possible to work from anywhere.However, despite employers encouraging in-office working, employees are demanding more flexibility ...
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OpinionMartin Williams: Making the sums add up for a four-day week
In a way, four-day working is already with us. Many people do not work what is currently regarded as the full, or standard, working week of five days, Monday to Friday.It is the form of the four-day week that is the cause of debate. Should it be the standard? Should ...
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OpinionEmma Clark: Government responds to the Women and Equalities Committee’s menopause recommendations
The government’s response to the Women and Equalities Committee’s menopause recommendations is not only greatly disappointing, but also a huge failure in supporting women in mid-life. Women and menopausal people do not feel supported in the workplace when going through this transition, therefore negatively impacting their work.The lack of direct ...
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OpinionPaul Ball: Proposal to change holiday pay calculations begins
Since the introduction of rights to paid annual leave under the Working Time Regulations 1998 (WTR), the number of workers who have irregular hours or are on term-time contracts has increased to more than 5.3 million.The WTR guarantee all workers at least 5.6 weeks of paid holiday per year. However, ...
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OpinionLovewell's logic: Does the UK government have workers' interests at heart?
Over the past few weeks, there have been an increasing number of social media posts and press articles about a bill currently passing through Parliament, with which the UK government has the potential to fundamentally change employment rights.The Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill, which reached report stage and ...
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OpinionJoanne Frew: The impact of the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill
The political landscape has been incredibly unsettled, with three prime ministers in the space of two months. With Rishi Sunak now appointed and warning that the UK faces a profound economic challenge, it will be interesting to see what impact the new government may have on the labour market.All European ...
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OpinionKaty Harries: To consolidate or not to consolidate, that is the question
We have now reached 10 years of automatic-enrolment, which has led to an increase in the value of pension savings and the number of people saving for their retirement. The vast majority of these people were enrolled into defined contribution (DC) schemes.As more people joined DC schemes, the government raised ...
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OpinionSian McKinley and Joshua Peters: The impact of the metaverse on employment law
Employment laws on harassment, discrimination and privacy of workers are well established online and in the office, but applying these rules in the metaverse raises novel risks and challenges. In the employment sphere, an evolution of existing legal principles is more likely than a complete overhaul.The nascent metaverse has already ...
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OpinionJayne Flint: What does the continuation of the off payroll working rules mean for businesses?
The government announced in the recent mini Budget that it intended to scrap the off payroll working rules from 6 April 2023. On 17 October 2022, it confirmed that this is no longer the case. This means that the rules, which apply when a business engages a contractor who operates ...
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OpinionJoanne Frew: Open communication is key as employees given more flexibility
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has published the government's response to the consultation ‘Making Flexible Working the Default’, confirming that millions of employees will receive a day one right to request flexible working, empowering them to have a greater say over when, where and how they ...
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OpinionMax Ballad: Forfeiture rules should allow trustees discretion to pay benefits to pensioners
Imagine you go into a shop to buy an item for 95 pence and hand over £1. You wait for your change. After a short while the shopkeeper closes the till and wishes you a good day. “No change?” “Sorry sir, in this shop if you don’t ask for your ...
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OpinionPaul Kelly: The importance of gender pay gap reporting for businesses
The government’s latest pay gap report, HMRC gender pay gap report 2021, which was published on 27 January 2022, revealed that in 2021, women earned 90 pence for every £1 earned by a man. Following this, there is increasing pressure for employers not just to report the numbers but instead ...
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OpinionEmily Whitelock: Can pensions auto-enrolment adjustments increase saver engagement?
In its blog published 4 November, AE has come a long way, but we all have further to go, the Pensions Regulator (TPR) recognises the successes of automatic-enrolment in encouraging retirement saving. It also acknowledges that it could do more to enforce employer compliance with AE obligations.Is there scope, 10 ...