What is on the employment law horizon in 2022 for those in the real estate sector? Sybille Steiner and Joanne Moseley investigate.
There is very little new employment-related legislation on the statute book and, on the face of it, 2022 looks to be a relatively quiet year in terms of confirmed employment law changes. But all that could quickly change: very little is known about the Omicron variant, and the government may have to impose new restrictions if its reliance on the vaccination programme does not appear to be working. As before, this would impact those working in real estate.
In addition, the government has been promising to publish a new Employment Bill since January 2020. It has recently announced a couple of consultations, which suggests that it may start to push ahead with its manifesto commitment to “protect and enhance” worker rights.
Extra bank holiday
To celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, there is an additional bank holiday in 2022. The May bank holiday weekend will be moved to Thursday 2 June, and an additional bank holiday on Friday 3 June will give many people the opportunity to take a four-day weekend.
Employers will need to decide if their staff are entitled to take an additional day’s paid leave either on the 3 June or at another date in the holiday year. The starting point is to look at the holiday clause in the employee’s contract of employment. If the contract states that the employee is entitled to, for example, 28 days’ holiday which includes all statutory and bank holidays, employers aren’t obliged to give them an extra day’s paid holiday. The same will apply if the contract just sets out the number of holiday days the employee can take and doesn’t mention bank holidays at all. Conversely, if the contract states that they are entitled to, for example, 20 days of paid holiday plus statutory and bank holidays, employers will have to allow them to take an additional day’s leave. But, if the contract states that they are only entitled to the statutory and bank holidays that are usually observed in England and Wales, they are not entitled to the extra day.
Take advice if you are not sure.
National Living Wage and National Minimum Wage
There are some hefty wage increases that employers will need to factor in. From April 2022, the National Living Wage, paid to workers aged 23 and over, will increase by 59p to £9.50.
The National Minimum Wage rates will also increase as follows:
- those aged 21-22 will receive £9.18 per hour – an increase of 82p;
- those aged 18-20 will receive £6.83 – an increase of 27p;
- those aged 16-17 will receive £4.81 – an increase of 19p; and
- apprentices under the age of 19 or in their first year will receive £4.81 – an increase of 51p.
Apprenticeship hiring incentives
Employers can obtain a financial incentive of £3,000 for each new apprentice they employ between 1 October 2021 and 31 January 2022. The application process opens on 11 January 2022 and closes on 15 May 2022.
This payment is in addition to the existing £1,000 employers will already receive for taking on an apprentice who is aged 16 to 18 years old or under 25 who has an ECHR plan or has been in care. Given the increasing number of apprenticeships in the industry, this support will be welcome.
Gender pay gap reporting
Since 2017, employers with 250 or more employees have had to publish an annual report containing data on their gender pay gap. Owing to the pandemic, enforcement of the reporting deadline in 2021 was extended by six months to 5 October 2021.
In 2022, deadlines are expected to revert to the normal timescales:
- for public sector employers, the deadline is 30 March 2022 with a snapshot date of 31 March 2021;
- for private sector employers and voluntary organisations, the deadline is 4 April 2022 with a snapshot date of 5 April 2021.
Duty to prevent workplace sexual harassment
The government has said that it will introduce a duty on employers to prevent sexual harassment in their workplaces and will reintroduce protection for employees who are sexually harassed by clients and customers.
Employment Bill
We are expecting this to be introduced in 2022. It could include:
- Amending the flexible working rules so that employees can ask to change their working hours or the days on which they work from the first day of their employment and requiring businesses to consider alternatives before turning down a request. It is also considering reducing the three-month time limit employers currently have to respond.
- Introducing a right for employees with long-term caring responsibilities to take up to one week’s unpaid leave each year, which can be taken in a block or as individual days or half days.
- Introducing a new right to allow parents of sick and premature babies to take one week of leave and state-funded pay when their baby is in hospital.
- Giving new parents at risk of being made redundant the right to be offered suitable alternative employment ahead of other members of staff for an additional six-month period after they return to work.
- Giving all workers the right to request a more predictable contract. This proposal was aimed at protecting people in insecure work, particularly in respect of casual staff engaged on zero-hours contracts, who often don’t know week to week what hours they will be offered.
- Establishing a new single enforcement agency to ensure that workers understand their legal rights and help to enforce them.
Immigration
The government intends to introduce a quicker, simplified service for compliant “straightforward” sponsors. The Home Office will be reviewing licence renewal patterns, which means that certain sponsors won’t have to renew their sponsorship licence every four years.
The government will also introduce a new Global Mobility visa in spring 2022 to help overseas firms transfer staff to the UK.
Recognition of qualifications acquired from outside the UK
The government will create a new framework for recognising the qualifications of professionals from overseas, which will include a new system for recognising all architects who qualified abroad.
Sybille Steiner is a partner and Joanne Moseley is a practice development lawyer in the employment team at Irwin Mitchell
