To help with this, government want to understand people’s experiences, focussing on some particular issues it might be able to tackle through changes to the law: • How best to make sure employers take all the steps they can to prevent harassment from happening • Strengthening and clarifying the law so it’s clear employers should protect their staff from being harassed by clients, customers, or other people from outside their organisation • Whether interns and volunteers are adequately protected by current laws and • Whether people should be given longer to take a harassment, discrimination or victimisation claim to an Employment Tribunal
The consultation is split into two parts: •
a set of online questions that are quick and easy for anyone to respond to, and • a more technical document that invites views on the details of the law. Both look at the same issues with a different level of detail.
The closing date for responses is 2 October 2019.
Confidentiality clauses Within the wider concerns about sexual harassment, a number of more focussed issues have also emerged. In March BEIS published a consultation putting forward proposals to help put an end to the unethical use of confidentiality clauses (often referred to as non-disclosure agreements/NDAs). The Government has recently published its response to the consultation and will be legislating so that limitations in confidentiality clauses or NDAs are clearly set out in employment contracts and settlement agreements on measures to prevent misuse in situations of workplace harassment or discrimination. See our News item (25 July) for full details.
Back to Contents
Pregnancy and maternity discrimination 25 July 2019
The Government has made a number of commitments in its response to the consultation on extending redundancy protection for pregnant women and new parents.
The consultation on extending redundancy protection for pregnant women and new parents ran from the end of January to 5 April 2019 and invited views on ways of achieving additional protection from redundancy for those returning from maternity and other forms of parental leave, and creating a more consistent approach to pregnant mothers and those on maternity leave. In its response, the Government commits to: • ensure the redundancy protection period applies from the point the employee informs the employer that she is pregnant, whether orally or in writing; • extend the redundancy protection period for six months once a new mother has returned to work. We expect that this period will start immediately once maternity leave is finished; • extend redundancy protection into a period of return to work for those taking adoption leave following the same approach as the extended protection being provided for those returning from maternity leave – it will be for six months; extend redundancy protection into a period of return to work for those taking shared parental leave, taking account of the following key principles and issues: o the key objective of this policy is to help protect pregnant women and new mothers from discrimination; o the practical and legal differences between shared parental leave and maternity leave mean that it will require a different approach; o the period of extended protection should be proportionate to the amount of leave and the threat of discrimination; o a mother should be no worse off if she curtails her maternity leave and then takes a period of Shared Parental Leave; o the solution should not create any disincentives to take Shared Parental Leave;
The Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals
Payroll: need to know
cipp.org.uk
Page 151 of 629
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker