Employment Law – Mini Update

Following on from the Chancellors announcements on Wednesday there have been several schemes implemented to aid economic recovery and to help avoid huge numbers of job redundancies.

We have condensed these down and highlighted some of the main ones below:

Job Retention Bonus Scheme:

Under this scheme, for every employee an employer brings back from Furlough and remains employed with the Company until the end of January 2021, they will receive a bonus of £1,000. This bonus is to encourage employers to retain staff rather than make them redundant. This measure was favoured over a reduction in employer National Insurance contributions and the maximum cost would be £9.4billion if every furloughed employee remained with their current company until end the of January 2021.

Employees must also be earning over £520 a month on average for the employer to be eligible.

£2bn Kick start Scheme

This new scheme has been announced and has been set up to provide young people between 16-24 year olds on Universal Credit. It will create thousands of 6-month work placement schemes set up to provide workplace skills and experience to the group most affect by COVID-19 and the Furlough Scheme.

Each job will be covered for 25 hours a week minimum wage plus employer NICs and minimum automatic enrolment contributions.

Court and Tribunal Investment:

£102m has been pledged to be invested in the court and tribunal system in England and Wales. Some of this investment will be going towards infrastructure maintenance and sustainability projects. However, £37m of the funds will be going towards the much-needed digitalisation of the courts. With this digitalisation it will be hoped the estimated waiting times for tribunals will be reduced as claimants are currently waiting over a year in certain parts of the country to be able to have their case heard.

Tax Treatment of COVID-19 Test provided by Employers

The government have confirmed that any test that were paid by employers for employees will be exempt from income tax and National Insurance contributions, this position has changed as previously they would have been treated as a taxable benefit on the employee. This aim of this measure is to stop employees putting off employee paid tests due to the tax implications. It is important to note that this applies only to tests paid for during the 2010-21 tax year.

If you would like to speak to a member of the employment team, please don’t hesitate to get in touch on 01133229222 or email us on enquiries@consilialegal.co.uk