From 6 April 2015, the new weekly:
- rate of statutory sick pay will be £88.45 (up 90p per week)
- flat rate of statutory maternity, paternity, adoption and shared parental pay (for babies expected or to be adopted on or after 5 April 2015) will be £139.58 (up £1.40 per week).
Additional paternity leave, meanwhile, is coming to an end and is only available for babies expected or to be adopted before 5 April 2015. Employers should make sure their policies and staff handbooks are updated in time for this change.
Watch out, too, for the increases to compensation limits for unfair dismissal. The cap for:
- the compensatory award is now £78,335 (up £1,761); and
- weekly pay, used for calculating unfair dismissal basic awards and statutory redundancy pay, is now £475 (up £9).
It makes even more financial sense for employers to analyse the risk of dismissals and to review their dismissal procedures before claims arise.
For more information on this or any employment law issue, please contact a member of our employment team.
Posted on March 9, 2015