Tuesday 8 October 2013

Financial Penalties for Employers - Probable Commencement Date

Section 16 of the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013 empowers tribunals to impose financial penalties on employers where they breach a worker's rights and there are "aggravating features".  The penalty will be 50% of any award, with a cap of £5,000, which is halved if paid within 21 days.

Over the summer, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills announced it had "no current plans" to implement this section (see page 3 of BIS's indicative timetable).  However, this morning, Jo Swinson (Minister for Employment Relations) tweeted that the government intends to implement the section in April 2014.


It appears the intention to implement employer's financial penalties from April 2014 does, indeed, represent BIS's current policy (according to a spokesperson we have spoken with from BIS this morning), albeit the indicative timetable has not yet been updated.

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