New Age Finally Dawns!

The second instalment of UK employment-related legislation for 2006 came into effect on 1 October. You will know most of the key features from previous alerts, but we thought it helpful to have brief summary!

The new issues covered include:

• Discrimination - The Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006 outlaw unjustified age discrimination in employment and vocational training.
  
• Work and Families - Changes to Maternity Regulations remove the six months' service requirement for additional maternity leave, and increase the notice employees must give an employer of changes to their maternity leave plans. They also introduce 'keeping in touch days'. Statutory maternity and adoption paid leave is extended from six to nine months for employees where the expected week of childbirth is on or after 1 April 2007.
  
• Minimum Wage - The national minimum wage is increased to £5.35 for workers aged 22 and over and £4.45 for workers aged 18-21.
  
• Consultation - TULR(C)A 1992 is amended to provide that where required, notice of redundancy must be given to the DTI at least 30 days before giving notice to terminate an employee's contract of employment (rather than before the actual dismissal date) to bring the legislation in line with recent case law.