New legislation - 1 October 2006

A whole host of new legislative provisions come into force on 1 October. These are as follows:

Age Discrimination

The bulk of the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006 will come into force. We say "the bulk" because only last week the Government announced that implementation of the pension provisions will be delayed until 1 December 2006.

We have produced a comprehensive free guide to age discrimination. If you would like to receive a copy, click here and press send.

Work and Families

A number of provisions of this Act come into force on 1 October 2006 and apply to women whose expected week of childbirth falls on or after 1 April 2007.

We are in the process of producing a Guide to the provisions. Should you wish to receive a copy once complete please click here and press send.

National Minimum Wage

The national minimum wage will increase to £5.35 (from £5.05) for workers aged 22 and over; to £4.45 (from £4.25) for workers aged 18-21; and to £3.30 for workers aged 16-17 (from £3.00).

Consultation on Collective Redundancies

The obligations on an employer when making collective redundancies - contained in the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 - will be amended to add an additional requirement, namely that employers will be required to notifiy the secretary of state of redundancies before any notices of dismissal have been issued.

Licensing of Gangmasters

From 1 October it will be an offence for labour providers to operate without a licence in the agriculture, horticulture and associated processing and packaging industries. This will affect recruitment and employment agencies as well as traditional gangmasters. For further details see the legislation section of Lawline Edition 122 .

Fire Safety

The biggest overhaul of fire safety legislation in decades will come into force on 1 October 2006. The new regime aims to place greater emphasis on fire prevention and will impact on all employers, including those in the voluntary sector and self-employed people with premises separate from their homes. Similar but different legislation has been drafted for England and Wales, and for Scotland.

If you require assistance with implementing any of the above measures, contact a member of our Employment Team.