5 Employment Law Changes to look out for in April 2021

1. IR35

Reforms to the IR35 rules on off-payroll working in the private sector come into force in April 2021, having been delayed by a year due to the pandemic. The rules are aimed at reducing tax avoidance for contractors employed via personal service companies.

2. National Minimum Wage

Employers should make sure that workers are being paid at least the national minimum wage that applies to them.

The national living wage (the highest band of the national minimum wage) increases to £8.91 per hour on 1 April 2021.

In addition, the age threshold for the national living wage is amended so that it applies to 23-and 24-year-old workers from 1 April 2021

3. Statutory redundancy payments

New limits on employment statutory redundancy pay come into force on 6 April 2021.  Employers that dismiss employees for redundancy must pay those with two years’ service an amount based on the employee’s weekly pay, length of service and age. The weekly pay is subject to a maximum amount. This amount is £544 from 6 April 2021.

4. Update statutory related pay and statutory sick pay

The weekly rate of statutory maternity, paternity, adoption, shared parental and parental bereavement pay increases to £151.97 from 4 April 2021. The weekly rate of statutory sick pay increases to £96.35 from 6 April 2021.

5. Gender pay gap reporting

Employers with 250 or more employees are normally required to publish their gender pay gap report by April. The deadline for private-sector and voluntary-sector employers is normally 4 April, while for public-sector employers it is 30 March.

However, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has stated that, due to the coronavirus pandemic, enforcement of the gender pay gap reporting duty for the 2020/2021 reporting year is delayed for six months, and does not begin until 5 October 2021.