National living wage to increase to £12.21 per hour from April 2025
The new national living wage ("NLW") and national minimum wage ("NMW") rates have been announced. From 1 April 2025 they will be as follows:-
- NLW (for those aged 21 and over) will increase from £11.44 to £12.21 per hour
- NMW (for those aged 18 to 20) will increase from £8.60 to £10.00 per hour
- NMW (for those aged under 18, but at least of school leaving age, and apprentices aged under 19 or in the first year of their apprenticeship) will increase from £6.40 to £7.55 per hour
Annual employment tribunal award statistics published
The employment tribunal award statistics for 2023/24 have been published. The highest award was £995,128 and was made in a sex discrimination claim. The overall number of claims made to the employment tribunal increased by 13% and, with the new rights that will be created under the Employment Rights Bill, we are likely to see further increases over the coming years in the number of clams raised. For more detail on the statistics see The annual employment tribunal award statistics have been published for 2023/2024.
Neurodiverse teacher awarded £850,000
An autistic teacher has been awarded £850,000 in compensation for unfair dismissal, victimisation and discrimination arising from disability. In Wright v Cardinal Newman Catholic School, the claimant, who was head of mathematics and a long standing employee, was dismissed after raising a number of complaints about the way he was being treated. The school terminated his employment after the claimant only accepted a demoted position "under protest". An employment tribunal concluded that the complaints that the claimant had made (that eventually led to his dismissal) arose from his autism and subsequently upheld claims of unfair dismissal, victimisation and discrimination arising from disability. The majority of the very large award consisted of compensation for loss of earnings, pension loss and injury to feelings.
Sponsor licence revocations increasing
We have seen a significant increase in actions against businesses with sponsor licences who have been found to be in breach of their sponsor licence compliance duties. Recent cases have highlighted the importance of sponsored workers duties and responsibilities matching the job descriptions set out in their Certificate of Sponsorship. To find out more on this, the other issues raised in recent cases and our recommendations on safeguarding businesses and ensuring compliance see Increasing cases of sponsor licence revocations: key things to consider.
Redundancy and sponsored workers
Where an employee who is at risk of redundancy holds a visa that is tied to their employment, the termination of that employment can mean the loss of their right to remain in the UK. In addition, the redundancy procedure needs to be carefully handled, for example, ensuring wages for an alternative role does not take the person below the threshold required for the visa. Where employment does end there are also notification and record keeping requirements to comply with. For more detail on this see Redundancy and sponsored workers: key immigration points to consider.
