Employment legislation coming into effect from October and November 2008

We summarise the employment legislation due to come into force that will affect your business.

Date	Development / Legislation	Detail
1 October 2008	Increases in the national minimum wage	New hourly rate from 1 October 2008 will be as follows Standard (adult) rate: £5.73 (rising from £5.52) Development rate: £4.77 (rising from £4.60) Young workers rate: £3.53 (rising from £3.40) see also: National minimum wage
5 October 2008	Maternity and Parental Leave etc and the Paternity and Adoption Leave (Amendment) Regulations 2008 (which came into force on 23 July 2008)	Employees who are due to give birth or adopt after 5 October 2008 have the right to the same terms and conditions during AML and additional adoption leave (AAL) as employees currently enjoy during OML and ordinary adoption leave (OAL). In particular, employees have the right to receive all non-monetary benefits under their contract and will continue to accrue annual leave at the rate specified in their contract of employment throughout the whole of the maternity or adoption leave. NB: the position re. pension entitlement during unpaid periods of AML and AAL remains unchanged. see also Changes to benefits maternity leave - are you ready?
27 October 2008	Fixed-term Employees (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) (Amendment) Regulations 2002	Agency workers on contracts of less than three months will become entitled to SSP
1 November 2008	Points-based immigration system: Tiers 2 and 5 come into force	Tier 2 applies to skilled migrant workers with job offers (who are coming to fill gaps in the UK labour market) Tier 5 applies to those travelling temporarily in the UK, primarily for non economic reasons