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Employment Issues
National Minimum Wage
From 1 October 2009 the national minimum wage increased again as follows:
- adult rate (workers aged 22 and over) increased to £5.80 per hour
- development rate for 18 - 21 year olds increased to £4.83 per hour
- development rate for 16 - 18 year olds (above compulsory school leaving age) increased to £3.57 per hour (NB. 16 and 17 year old apprentices are exempt from the young workers’ rate)
- The adult minimum wage rate is expected to be extended to 21 year olds from October 2010
- the rate for accommodation offset increased to £31.57 per week (£4.51 per day)
Full details on the BIS website
Holiday Entitlement
Minimum holiday entitlement (including bank holidays) rose to 28 days from 1 April 2009. Businesses will need to build the cost and reduction of employee availability into business plans and contracts.
Full details including transitional provisions on the Business Link website.
Sick Pay
Agency workers are entitled to statutory sick pay unless their contract with the agency is for a specified period of three months or less following the High Court’s decision in the Thorn Baker case. Special rules exist where the original three month period is exceeded or the worker has two or more contracts with the same agency totalling more than three months.
Further information on HMRC's website.
Late Night Travel
HMRC has issued clarification on the tax and NIC position in respect of ‘home to work’ travel costs. It highlights late working and the use of a taxi. The cost of taxi journeys will not be assessable as a benefit in kind only if all the following conditions are met:
- the employee is required to work later than usual and until at least 21.00
- this occurs irregularly; and
- by the time the employee ceases work - either public transport has ceased, or - it would not be reasonable to expect the employee to use public transport - AND the number of occasions in the tax year on which a taxi is provided is no more than 60.
For the exemption to apply all the above conditions must be satisfied on each occasion an employee is provided with a taxi for a journey from work to home.
Further information on HMRC's website.
[10/02/10]