UK: Employment law changes in October

On 1 October 2015 the following changes came into force:

• New national minimum wage rates, the adult rate increasing from £6.50 to £6.70 an hour.
• Employment tribunals have lost their power to make wider recommendations for employers to take remedial action in successful discrimination claims; they can now only make recommendations that would benefit the particular claimant (and therefore not where the claimant has left the job).
• Sikh workers now have the right to wear a turban instead of a safety helmet in most workplaces (subject to various exceptions).
   

The requirement under the Modern Slavery Act for large businesses to publish a slavery and human trafficking statement for each financial year is expected to come into force some time in October. An HSF briefing on the Act is available here.

Finally, an announcement at the Conservative Party conference in early October set out plans to extend the current shared parental leave regime by 2018 to allow new mothers to share their leave with working grandparents. A consultation is expected in the first half of 2016.