Tribunal Fees
The government has published its long-awaited review into the impact of Employment Tribunal Fees, available here. It concluded that while there is evidence that the introduction of fees has discouraged people from bringing claims, there is “no conclusive evidence” that people have been prevented from doing so. The report recommends a modest extension to the current fee remission scheme.
Tribunal Decisions
Employment Tribunal decisions can now be accessed online via a database (here) which is searchable by name, date, judge or jurisdiction code. The database will contain decisions published from January 2017 onwards.
Gender Pay Reporting
ACAS has published new guidance on the Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2017, available here. Our Q&A on the regulations is also available here.
Dress Codes
The Pensions Committee and the Women and Equalities Committee have published a joint report in response to a petition signed by more than 150,000 members of the public. The report, “High Heels and Workplace Dress Codes” (available here), recommends that the government should review this area of law, and criticises the existing ACAS guidance for being unclear, and not particularly helpful to employers. The Report recommends that new, more detailed guidance dealing directly with the difficult issues in this area should be prepared by ACAS and the Government Equalities Office.
National minimum wage
The draft National Minimum Wage (amendment) Regulations 2017 have been published and are intended to come into force on 1 April 2017. The new rates will be as follows:
• Workers aged 25 and over: £7.50 (previously £7.20)

• Workers aged 21 to 24: £7.05 (previously £6.95)

• Workers aged 18 to 20: £5.60 (previously £5.55)

• Non-apprentices under 18: £4.05 (previously £4.00)

• Apprentices: £3.50 (previously £3.40)