London Employment Solicitor: October 2012

Thursday, October 18, 2012

One Big Happy Family?

Occasionally you hear employers describing their staff as one big happy family. That may not be such a good thing if you’re a domestic servant.

In Nambalat v Taher this month, the Court of Appeal held that au pairs and domestic workers are not entitled to the national minimum wage if they live in family home are treated as part of the family, especially regarding the provision of accommodation and meals and the sharing of tasks and leisure activities.

The NMW of £6.08 ph for adults is hardly a fortune and this decision will not help combat the increase in exploitation of domestic workers, who may not be able to afford to leave even if they want to.

Work Smarter: Click here to read about our Employer Protection Scheme to help run your business more efficiently and protect your business against Tribunal claims.

http://ymlp.com/zPD6mF

James Carmody

RECULVER SOLICITORS

Tel: 0207 324 6271 | Fax: 0207 477 2276 | info@reculversolicitors.co.uk

12-16 Clerkenwell Road, London EC1M 5PQ

www.reculversolicitors.co.uk | www.kent-employment-solicitors.co.uk | www.croydon-employment-solicitors.co.uk

Reculver Solicitors Ltd (Company No. 6910066) | Solicitors: James Carmody*, Carol Aylott, Kate Henry.

Regulated & authorised by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, SRA No. 565284 (*Director)

Friday, October 5, 2012

Boring But Important: Pension Reform

The introduction of auto-enrolment into pension for employees has been widely reported this week, leaving some employers vaguely uneasy about what they have to do and when.

At present if you have five or more staff, you should have a stakeholder pension in place. From October 2012 the largest employers with over 120,000 workers will have to comply with Pension Auto-Enrolment under the Pensions Act 2008. Smaller employers with under 40 employees won’t have to auto-enrol till August 2015. To find out when your business will be affected, click staging date.

All workers aged 22-65 earning more than the income tax personal allowance and who are not already members of a qualifying pension scheme, must be enrolled in an automatic enrolment scheme from the relevant staging date.

Contributions start with a minimum of 2% of qualifying earnings (with at least 1% from the employer), and rise to a total minimum of 8% of qualifying earnings (with at least 3% from the employer) from October 2017.

For many employers that don’t currently provide pension schemes, this will be a big and unwelcome additional cost, and which they may recoup by not making incremental pay increases in those years. However the more people that get adequate pension cover in place, the more that will actually be in a position to retire when they reach the age of 65. Go to www.tpr.gov.uk/pensions-reform for more information. Read also our longer article here.

Click here to read about our Employer Protection Scheme & protect your business against Tribunal claims