Irwin Mitchell | IM Educate Briefing | May 2019: News in brief

Ten ways to make gender pay gap information more reliable

The Royal Statistical Society has published a list of ten recommendations in a bid to improve the accuracy and usefulness of gender pay gap reporting, calling the current system “flawed in principle.” It noted that numerous employers are making mistakes when submitting gender pay gap data, with some employers reporting statistically impossible results.

Key recommendations:

Publish the gap in pounds and pence, rather than as a percentage
Provide free online calculators to help increase the accuracy of reporting with built in “sanity checks” to make it clear when mistakes have been made and prevent statistically implausible entries
Calculate the gender pay gap within each quartile to make it harder for employers to publish misleading figures
Publish each employer's annual results side-by-side to facilitate comparisons and the identification of trends.

Unless the government makes changes to gender pay gap reporting, colleges don't have to do anything differently (provided their data is correct). However, it might be sensible to adopt some of these changes (particularly publishing data in pounds and pence) on your website to make the information easier to understand.

Union campaigns for one National Minimum Wage rate

The National Minimum Wage (NMW) has been in force for 20 years. To mark its anniversary, the union UNISON has launched a campaign to get rid of the age bands and pay the same rate to everyone.

It believes that the government can't justify paying less to younger people and that everyone should be paid the same rate for doing the same job.

Its campaign, #OneWageAnyAge, appears to be supported by the Labour Party who attended the launch and said it was committed to raising the NMW to £10 per hour.

The NMW and National Living Wage increased on Monday 1 April.

The National Living Wage increased from £7.83 to £8.21 per hour

The NMW increased:

Workers aged 21 to 24 – from £7.38 to £7.70 per hour

Workers aged 18 to 20 – from £5.90 to £6.15 per hour

Workers aged over compulsory school age under 18 – from £4.20 to £4.35 per hour

Apprentices – from £3.70 to £3.90 per hour.

Worried about the impact of Brexit on your workforce? New ACAS guidance may help

Acas has published new guidance to assist employers and employees in understanding the impact Brexit may have in their workplace.

It explains the potential changes to employment law stemming from the UK leaving the EU, and provides links to the government's technical guidance. The guidance also explains the impact of Brexit on EU citizens working in the UK, provides links to government materials on their rights, and goes on to offer advice to employers when talking to their employees about how they may be impacted by the UK's exit.

The guidance confirms that tribunal and court decisions appealed to the European Court of Human Rights won’t be impacted by Brexit.

Teachers paying to provide basics for pupils

A report from the NASUWT teaching union suggests that teachers are digging into their own pockets to provide basic classroom resources and essentials for their pupils. The report surveyed 4,386 teachers.

Some 20% of teachers said they buy lesson resources with their own money once a week, and 12% said they did so more often. Stationery, arts and crafts materials and books were the most common purchases.

House of Lords report says Further Education is “seriously underfunded”

The House of Lords Committee has published a report on Intergenerational Fairness and Provision. It calls on the government to take steps to deliver a fairer society by supporting younger people in the housing and employment market, and deliver better in-work training and lifelong learning to prepare the country for the coming 100-year lifespan.

It recommends that substantial increases should be made to increase funding for Further Education and vocational training to tackle unfairness between those to go onto Higher Education and those who don’t.

Court of Appeal will hear term-time only holiday pay case in May

Regular readers of this column will be aware of the important case of Brazel v The Harpur Trust, where the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) made it clear that part-time staff without normal working hours must have their holiday pay calculated by reference to their average earnings over the previous 12 weeks and not by applying a fixed formula of 12.07%.

That decision has resulted in changes being made to the way in which holiday is calculated for term-time only staff.

The Court of Appeal is due to hear the school’s appeal on Tuesday 14 and Wednesday 15 May 2019 and we will report back once the judgment has been published.

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May 2019: News in brief – Colleges

Ten ways to make gender pay gap information more reliable

Union campaigns for one National Minimum Wage rate

Worried about the impact of Brexit on your workforce? New ACAS guidance may help

Teachers paying to provide basics for pupils

House of Lords report says Further Education is “seriously underfunded”

Court of Appeal will hear term-time only holiday pay case in May

For general enquiries

About Irwin Mitchell

Contact Us

Get a call back

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May 2019: News in brief – Colleges

Ten ways to make gender pay gap information more reliable

Union campaigns for one National Minimum Wage rate

Worried about the impact of Brexit on your workforce? New ACAS guidance may help

Teachers paying to provide basics for pupils

House of Lords report says Further Education is “seriously underfunded”

Court of Appeal will hear term-time only holiday pay case in May

For general enquiries

About Irwin Mitchell

Contact Us

Get a call back