CPA Bulletin

www.cpa.uk.net CPA Bulletin > August 2023 35 Legal NEWS LEGAL: 1 As part of the EU Retained Law process initiated by the government, this consultation closed on 7th July 2023. It focused on minor amendments to the WTR and TUPE. Retained legislation which will remain unchanged but could have been affected by WTR or TUPE amendments are: • Maternity & Parental Leave Regulations 1999 • Paternity & Adoption Leave Regulations 2002 • Part-time Workers (less favourable treatment) Regulations 2000 • Fixed-term Employees (less favourable treatment) Regulations 2002 • Agency Workers Regulations 2010 The main provisions of the WTR will remain unchanged: • Maximum average working week hours of 48 hours over a 17-week Reference Period • Workers can opt-out of the 48-hour average working week • Rest breaks of 20 minutes after 6 hours working • Annual leave of 5.6 weeks • Uninterrupted rest of 11 hours each day, and at least 24 hours rest each week, (or 48 hours each fortnight) The proposals put forward by the government for WTR are: • Record Keeping - To remove the need for companies to keep a record of daily working hours worked by their workers. • Holiday Pay/Leave - Rather than separate annual leave entitlement with the Bank/Public holiday entitlement is to combine the two. The government is seeking views from employers and workers on: i) How holiday pay should be calculated - when currently, annual holiday pay may include overtime, bonus, etc., whereas bank/public holidays are paid at the basic rate, ii) and how it should be defined in legislation. ‘Rolled-up’ Holiday Pay’ - So as to give employers the choice between using the existing 52-week holiday pay reference period - i.e., the last 52 weeks where the worker actually worked. [For a period of less than 52 weeks, the reference period is whatever time the worker worked for the company]; and ‘rolled-up’ holiday pay for workers working irregular hours. ‘Rolled-up’ pay will be set at 12.07% (based on 5.6 weeks over 46.4 working week) and must be clearly marked on the worker’s payslip. This element of the consultation is primarily aimed at employees working in or employers using individuals within the ‘gig’ economy. The proposal put forward by government for TUPE are: • Small companies may consult directly with employees - if no existing employee representation is in place. • This right of direct consultation will apply to all sizes of businesses where there are a small number of employees being transferred. Companies with 50 or more employees would still - as is currently the case - need to arrange employee representation elections (if not already in place), unless fewer than 10 employees are being transferred. Notification for this consultation was circulated out to the membership for comment. As a by-product of the above article, at the time of writing, the Retained EU Law Bill is still being pushed between the House of Lord and Commons regarding the exact wording in the Bill, but once agreed it will be given Royal Assent and made law. Any retained EU laws must be expressly transferred into UK by 31st December 2023, or they will cease to be law in the UK. Consultation on Reforms to the Working Time Regulations (WTR) and the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations (TUPE)