Reforms – all the latest on employee shareholders and more!

As promised we are keeping you up to date on the progress of the Government’s employment law reform agenda (keeping up with it is nearly a full time job at the moment!).

Employee Shareholders

In the Budget on 20 March George Osborne announced that the initial shares given to an ‘employee shareholder’ (which are required to be between £2,000 and £50,000 in value) would be free of income tax and National Insurance contributions up to at least £2,000. This addresses one of the problems with the proposals as covered in our previous article here.

Mr Osborne also confirmed that the new rules on employee shareholders would not come into effect in April 2013 and would instead be pushed back to September 2013.

However, shortly afterwards the House of Lords voted against the employee shareholder provisions, meaning that the Bill has to return to the House of Commons. It is not clear yet whether the Government will try to re-introduce the clause and if so, what the outcome of a vote would be.

Timetable

The Government has also clarified the implementation timetable for the other reforms which are currently in the offing, and the latest news is as follows:

Coming into effect in summer 2013:

• Settlement Agreements (see our article on these here)

• New cap on the compensatory award (for more information, click here)

• Tribunal fees (our article on these can be found here)

• New Employment Tribunal procedural rules (more detail here)

• Changes to the law on whistleblowing (see our article from last month here)

Coming into effect in autumn 2013:

• Employee shareholder status (subject to the above!)

• TUPE reforms (see our article on these here)

Coming into effect during 2014:

• ACAS early conciliation (which is covered here)

• Tribunal fines for employers (also covered here)

We will of course keep you updated as the exact dates and further details become known.

If you would like to talk through a situation you are dealing with, or if you need advice on any aspect of employment law, please contact any member of the Pure Employment Law team (01243 836840 or [email protected]).

Please note that this update is not intended to be exhaustive or be a substitute for legal advice. The application of the law in this area will often depend upon the specific facts and you are advised to seek specific advice on any given scenario.