There are lots of new HR related rules coming into force this April. Here are a few of the main ones worth noting:

Holidays carried over to next year

Now workers who fall sick while on holiday should be allowed to reschedule their time off, even it if means carrying the leave over to a new holiday year.

Workers can accrue holiday pay whilst on sick leave and that they should be permitted to carry forward the holiday to the next holiday year in such cases.

Fit Notes

“Fit notes” will replace sick notes from 6 April 2010. Where an employee is sick for longer than seven days, they will need to submit a fit note to their employer. The fit note will have two options for the GP to tick: 1. “You are not fit for work” or
2. “You may be fit for work taking into account the following advice”.

New Right to Request Time Off 

The right to request time off work to undertake study or training is being phased in from 6 April 2010. Such a right will work in a similar way to the right to make a flexible working request, in that an employer must consider requests seriously and can only refuse them on specified business grounds.

Some Statutory payments go up!

From April 2010, the new statutory payments will be as follows:Statutory maternity pay- £124.88
Statutory adoption pay- £124.88
Statutory paternity pay- £124.88

Greater paternity leave and pay 

Changes to the paternity leave and pay regime will become law on 6 April 2010. However, they will not come into force until 3 April 2011. A mother will be able to transfer up to six months of her maternity leave to the father when she returns to work.