2020 will bring some important changes to UK employment law that will affect you if you work through an intermediary or employ agency workers.

Between the disruption caused by Brexit and landmark changes to IR35, you would be forgiven for missing some of these more minor employment law updates.

In this blog post, we’ll cover all of the employment law changes that are happening this year - both little and large - and explain how they could affect temporary employees and their employers.

Agency workers’ rights are changing

A number of important changes will affect agency workers from April 6 2020. These include:

Abolition of the Swedish Derogation - After 12 weeks working on the same assignment, workers have a right to be paid equal to permanent members of staff. The Swedish Derogation is a special kind of contract where temporary workers can give up this right to pay parity in return for pay in between assignments.

Commonly used in manufacturing and retail, these kinds of contracts will be abolished from April after the Taylor Review recommended they be banned to provide more stability for workers. Temporary employment agencies must provide Swedish Derogation workers with a written statement about the change by no later than 30 April 2020.

Agency workers that are considered to be employees will be protected from unfair dismissal or other detriments if they assert their rights in line with this change or in line with other parts of The Agency Worker Regulations.

Key information document - Agency workers will also be entitled to a key information document that clearly sets out their employment relationship and the terms and conditions with the agency.

Other employment law changes

Other employment law changes won’t just affect agency workers. These include:

Private sector IR35 - The government has signalled that it intends to pursue reform to IR35 rules in the private sector from April. These changes mean that fee-payers will be responsible for judging a contractor’s IR35 status.

Minimum wage increase - A new ‘national living wage’ will result in a boost for Britain’s lowest paid workers. Over-25s will see an increase from £8.21 to £8.72 from the start of April.

Parental bereavement - Parents and primary carers who suffer the loss of a child will be entitled to at least two weeks’ paid parental bereavement leave from April 2020. This was signed into law in 2018 and includes adopters, foster parents and guardians as well as close relatives and family friends that have taken responsibility for a child’s care.

For more information about employment law changes and how they could impact you, speak to a member of the team today. Call: 0800 121 6513.