The Good Work Plan – are you compliant?
Our HR Assistant, Jack Taylor, discusses the Good Work Plan and the changes that came in from April 2020.
The Good Work Plan has been introduced to ensure that employees are all treated fairly and equally by their employers. Numerous employment law reforms were set out in the Good Work Plan, published in December 2018. The overall aim of the plan is to strengthen employment rights and improve our work lives. The Good Work Plan is government legislation to bring UK employment law in line with modern ways of working. It’s the result of the independent Taylor Review of Modern Working Practices.
Why do we need the Good Work Plan?
- Commitment to fair employment.
- Clarity for employers and workers.
- Tighter enforcement and legal transparency.
In April every year, there are usually changes to statutory rates of maternity pay, sick pay and adoption pay. However, this past April there was a number of changes which had a significant impact on employers and employees.
The Good Work Plan sets out some fairly big changes and ideals that will impact UK employers.
The four recommendations for the Good Work Plan
- Employment status
- Increasing transparency
- Agency workers
- Enforcement
In a nutshell, the Government is hoping that the Good Work Plan will address each of these four areas. It aims to narrow the gap between different employment statuses, make the job market fairer for agency workers, increase the transparency by which this all works, and then find better ways to enforce the new legislation.
The five principles the Good Work Plan hopes to follow
- Satisfaction
- Fair pay
- Participation and progression
- Wellbeing, safety and security
- Voice and autonomy
All employers should be including the below into their employment particulars with an employee –
Currently you must provide an employee with a document that includes:
- The names of the employer and employee
- The date the employment starts and the date the employee’s period of continuous employment began
- Pay (or method of calculating it) and interval of payment
- Hours of work, including normal working hours
- Holiday entitlement and holiday pay
- The employee’s job title or a brief description of the work
- Place of work
- A person to whom the employee can appeal if they are dissatisfied with any disciplinary or grievance decision (and the manner in which any such application should be made) or any decision to dismiss them
- Terms related to work outside the UK for a period of more than one month.
As of 6 April 2020, a written statement will also need to set out:
- The days of the week the worker is required to work, whether the working hours may be variable and how any variation will be determined
- Any paid leave to which the worker is entitled
- Details of all remuneration and benefits
- Any probationary period
- Any training entitlement provided by you, including whether any training is mandatory and/or must be paid for by the worker
- The notice periods for termination by either side
- Terms as to length of temporary or fixed-term work.
Holiday pay reference periods
- The calculation of holiday will also change at the same time. Just when employers may have become used to using a 12-week reference period to determine an average week’s pay for the purposes of calculating holiday pay, the reference period will change to 52 weeks (or the number of complete weeks for which the worker has been employed if that is less) from April.
Agency workers
- Two key changes for employment businesses and those that engage with them are the abolition of the Swedish derogation and provision of a key information document to agency work-seekers. They also need to be applied from April 2020.
Right to request for predictable and stable hours
Employees who have been with a company for 26 weeks and who work varied or flexible hours will have the right to request more ‘predictable and stable’ hours. This could include confirmation as to the amount of hours or the days worked each week.
The government is also lengthening the reference period for determining an average week’s pay from 12 weeks to 52 weeks from 6 April 2020. This means that if a worker’s pay fluctuates, their pay will now be calculated on the basis of a 12-month period.
At HPC we are here to help. We appreciate that this year the main focus has been on Covid19 and the Good Work Plan may have been forgotten unintentionally. However, it is essential that your business remains compliant with the changes that came in earlier this year. As we come to the end of the year it is time to get up to date with the changes. We can aid you in getting your business compliant.
If you have any concerns or would like to discuss the Good Work Plan further, please get in contact with the HPC team today
T: 0844 800 5932
E: contact@highperformanceconsultancy.com
Twitter: @HPC_HRServices
