Employment Law update: What’s coming in October?

Tips  

The new law governing how an employer must deal with customers’ tips for its employees and workers comes into force on 1 October 2024.  This is also supplemented by a new statutory Code of Practice on tipping.   

 

This legislation specifies that all tips, gratuities and service charges must be passed on to employees, without any deductions.  Employers who regularly receive tips are also obliged to have a written tipping policy.   

 

Tips must be paid to employees by the end of the month that follows the month in which the tips are paid by customers. Employers must fairly and transparently distribute the tips, but they can choose how this is achieved. For example, by choosing to share the tips only amongst those employees who have customer contact. Alternatively, employers can use a tronc, such as an external independent accountancy firm, to distribute the tips.   

 

We’ll be sending out a detailed update and draft Tipping policy soon to clients with our HR package.  

 

Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act 2023 

Amendments to the Equality Act 2010 are coming into force on 26 October 2024.  These introduce a new positive obligation on an employer to take ‘reasonable steps’ to prevent sexual harassment of its workers in their employment. If employers breach this obligation, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (‘EHRC’) can take enforcement action and the compensation for a sexual harassment claim can be increased by up to 25%. 

 

These amendments were passed by the previous Conservative government and in its manifesto, the Labour Party said these changes didn’t go far enough. They plan to amend this new law so that employers have to show they have taken “all” reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment (i.e. not just reasonable steps). They also plan to introduce provisions that could make an employer liable for any harassment by third parties (e.g. by customers or suppliers).  But we don’t yet have any details about the nature of these changes or when they’re likely to be introduced.  

 

However, the EHRC has now completed a consultation about amending its technical guidance on preventing workplace sexual harassment and this updated guidance does contain lots of references to third party harassment. We’re waiting for the consultation’s conclusions but if this updated guidance is introduced, it would give the EHRC the power to enforce action if an employer fails to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment by third parties.   

 

We’ll send out an update once the final EHRC guidance is issued. 

 

Employment Rights Bill 

Our August newsletter updated you on the employment law reforms covered in the July King’s Speech and a lot of these reforms are to be detailed in the Employment Rights Bill.   

 

The Labour government has promised that this Bill will be published within their first 100 days in power and so is expected by mid-October.  It will then need to be debated and passed by Parliament.   

 

We’ll be providing a summary of its provisions when this has been published. 

  

  

Right to request a more predictable pattern of work 

The Department for Business and Trade has confirmed that the heralded new legislation around ‘predictable patterns’ of working is no longer coming into force in October 2024.  This was going to give workers and agency workers the right to request more predictable terms and conditions of work relating to their work pattern.  

 

Instead, the government is planning to go further with these reforms.  The Labour manifesto said that they would ban “exploitative zero-hours” contracts and ensure everyone has the right to have a contract that reflects the number of hours they regularly work, based on a 12-week reference period.  

 

These provisions will also be contained in the Employment Rights Bill.