Get ready for new employment rights enforcement agency, Azets warns

The clock is ticking for firms in Yorkshire to get ready for the introduction of the Fair Work Agency (FWA), according to experts from business and advisory group Azets.

Hannah-Jane (HJ) Dobbie and Julie Gunnell have warned that employers in the county could face a number of consequences, including fines, if they don’t comply with the employment rights the FWA will enforce.

The government is launching the FWA as an executive agency of the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) in April of this year.

Azets has three offices in Yorkshire, in Leeds, Bradford and York, where it employs 335 people.

H-J Dobbie, head of HR consultancy at Azets, said: “The creation of the FWA marks a step change in the Government’s attitude towards employment rights and shows they will take a proactive approach to enforcing them.

“Many of the areas the FWA will enforce when it launches in April – Statutory Sick Pay, statutory holiday entitlement and agency worker protections, for example – are areas employers should already be complying with. But if they don’t, the consequences of not doing so will become more serious from the spring of this year.”

The FWA’s new powers include the ability to enforce employer failure to pay payments to workers that include holiday and statutory sick pay (SSP).

It will be able to issue notices of underpayment to employers if employees haven’t received these payments, which can go back up to six years and must be paid within 28 days of being issued.

It will also be able to investigate employers it believes aren’t complying with employment law and under this will be able to enter a business’ premises, interview its staff and check documents, computers and equipment.

York-based Julie Gunnell, associate director of payroll growth at Azets, said: “The Fair Work Agency will have the authority to impose financial penalties, publicly identify employers who fail to comply and represent workers in employment tribunal proceedings.

“Its introduction signals a major shift in how employment rights are enforced, and businesses in Yorkshire should begin now to review their processes, including payroll processes around accuracy and compliance, to ensure readiness for its launch in April.

“Preparing now will help avoid penalties and reputational risk when the agency launches in April.”

From April 1st, the FWA will enforce the following key employment rights:

• Statutory Sick Pay
• National Minimum Wage (NMW) including entitlement to the NMW and record-keeping requirements
• Unlawful deductions from pay
• Statutory holiday entitlement and pay
• Agency worker protections
• Modern slavery, human trafficking, and forced labour
• Zero hour and low guaranteed hour contracts and the right to request more stable hours
• Gangmasters licencing
• Obligations to pay sums ordered by an Employment Tribunal or a conciliation agreement.
• A new obligation to keep records demonstrating compliance with statutory holiday entitlement for six years.

For more information about Azets, visit www.azets.co.uk