Blog
New Year and proposed new changes to employment law
Published 20 December 2021
Meta tag: employment law updates 2022
New Year and proposed new changes to employment law
It’s the time of year when we look forward to what is to come and it is likely to see some important changes to employment law.
The pandemic delayed previously anticipated changes to employment legislation.
As fears grow about the Omicron variant of coronavirus and the disruption it may cause, the following proposed employment law changes for 2022 may again be subject to change:
Mandatory vaccination
Covid vaccinations are already a requirement for work in other parts of the world e.g. doctors in France, teachers in New Zealand and government employees in Canada.
From 11 November 2021, anyone working or volunteering in a care home was required to be fully vaccinated against coronavirus (COVID-19), unless exempt [1 cited 20/12/21]
It looks set to become mandatory for frontline NHS staff in England to be fully vaccinated against Covid by the beginning of April 2022 [2 cited 20/12/21]
Gender pay gap reporting
This applies to private and voluntary sector organisations with 250 or more employees on 5 April 2021, and most public sector organisations with 250 employees or more on 31 March 2021 [3 cited 20/12/21]
Scheduled deadlines are:
- for public sector employers, the deadline is 30 March 2022 with a snapshot date of 31 March 2021
- for private sector employers and voluntary organisations, the deadline is 4 April 2022 with a snapshot date of 5 April 2021
Workplace sexual harassment
A mandatory duty on employers will mean they will have to protect staff from sexual harassment. It will introduce explicit protections from third-party harassment e.g. from clients and contractors [4 cited 20/12/21]
Draft legislation to implement the new duty is expected in 2022.
Employment Bill
In December 2019, a new Employment Bill was announced in the Queen’s Speech [5 cited 20/12/21]. It is anticipated it will be published at some point in 2022.
Timescales for the measures in the Bill to take effect are not yet confirmed.
The measures expected to be included in the Bill are wide-ranging, and include the following.
Tips and gratuities
New legislation is set to ensure workers in the hospitality