Crowning speech
Date: 04 December 2009
Authors: Melanie Adams
Issue: Vol 159, Issue 7396
Categories: Features, Employment, LexisPSL
New legislation to regulate remuneration in the banking sector and tackle bribery, and a renewed commitment to enact the Equality Bill and the Agency Workers Regulations, have been announced by the government in the Queen’s Speech.
Banking sector remuneration
The Financial Services Bill includes provisions: for executives’ remuneration reports; imposing a new duty on the Financial Services Authority (FSA) to make general rules requiring authorised persons (under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000) to have and implement a remuneration policy; the remuneration policy must be consistent with the effective management of risks and the implementation standards for principles for sound compensation practices, issued by the Financial Stability Board.
The FSA rules may: prohibit workers from being remunerated in a specified way; provide that any provision of an agreement that contravenes such a prohibition is void; and provide for the recovery of any payment made, or property transferred, under such a void provision.
The Bill is available here: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200910/cmbills/006/2010006.pdf
Bribery Bill
The Bribery Bill aims to provide a more effective legal framework to combat bribery in the public and private sectors. See: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200910/ldbills/003/10003.i-ii.html.
Employers will need to be aware of a new offence to be created under the Bill. The offence is committed when:
- a person performing services for the commercial organisation (including employees, agents or subsidiaries) bribes another person; and
- the bribe is in connection with the organisation’s business.
The maximum penalty will be an unlimited fine. A defence is available if the organisation has in place “adequate procedures” designed to prevent bribery. The draft Bill required, for the offence to be made out, that a “responsible person” within the organisation negligently failed to prevent the bribe being made, but this requirement was dropped from the Bill.
Equality Bill
The government has re-stated its commitment to the Equality Bill but has not announced a target enactment date. The Bill awaits its report stage in the House of Commons. Main elements relevant to employment lawyers include:
l extending positive action;
l measures to simplify discrimination law, such as: abolishing the existing two-tier levels of definition and tests in the RRA 1976; standardising the definition of indirect discrimination; simplifying the exceptions to the legislation;
l changes in relation to disability discrimination;
l strengthening enforcement, for example by allowing tribunals to make wider recommendations and claims to be brought on multiple combined grounds;
l changes relating to harassment; and
l expanding the equality duty on public bodies.
Most existing discrimination legislation will be repealed as a result of the Bill. For further details, see: http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2008-09/equality.html
Agency workers
The government has emphasised its commitment to enacting the Agency Workers Regulations during this Parliament. They are scheduled to come into force on 1 October 2011. Their main provisions include:
l a right for agency workers, after 12 weeks in a job, to equal treatment with permanent staff on pay, holidays and other basic conditions;
l entitlement for all agency workers to:
l information about vacancies in the hirer;
l equal access to on-site facilities; and
l improved rights to protect the health and safety of new and expectant mothers.
The agency will be responsible for any breach of a right to equal treatment but will have a defence if they have taken reasonable steps to obtain the necessary information from the hirers and have acted reasonably in determining the agency worker’s basic working and employment conditions.
The consultation paper, including the draft regulations, is available here: http://www.berr.gov.uk/consultations/page53060.html
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