Posted in News on 13 Oct 2014
Minimum Wage rise
The National Minimum Wage rates for all workers have increased. The Standard Adult Rate is now £6.50, the Development Rate is £5.03, the Young Workers Rate is £3.72 and the Apprenticeship Rate is £2.68.
Practice Certificate Renewal
The deadline date is 31th October 2014. Solicitors must submit their applications and payment by this date. See MySRA.
Employment Tribunals
The latest statistics for employment tribunal claims have recently been released by the Ministry of Justice and as expected they reveal a further drop in the number of claims which have been lodged in employment tribunals.
The statistics for April to June 2014 show a drop in claims of 70% compared with the same period in 2013 and a drop of one third compared to the previous quarter (January to March 2014). This is the third consecutive quarter in which the number of claims has reduced.
Unsurprisingly the number of appeals being lodged at the EAT has also declined significantly with 25% fewer appeals being lodged in the financial year 2013/14 as compared to the previous financial year.
As for why the number of claims continues to decline, clearly the tribunal fee structure continues to have a major impact on the willingness of claimants to bring claims. In addition however it appears (at first glance at least) that the introduction of the ACAS Early Conciliation regime (which became compulsory on 6th May 2014) is also having a significant impact.