There have been some huge changes to the landscape of employment law. Employers have been forced to make changes to employment contracts, review policies regarding holiday pay and commission and employees now have to pay Employment Tribunal fees.

Luke Welsh, head of employment law at Howells Solicitors, Newport, looks at what were the key changes in 2014 and what we can expect in 2015?

ACAS Early Conciliation - from April 6, 2014, all potential claims to an Employment Tribunal must be referred to ACAS in an attempt to amicably settle claims before a claim form is issued. This, coupled with the introduction of tribunal fees in summer 2013 has had a huge impact on the amount of tribunal claims being lodged, with numbers reported to have dropped by in excess of 70 per cent.

Overtime and holiday pay – The judgment in Bear Scotland v Fulton was given by the Employment Appeals Tribunal in November concluding that overtime should also be considered when calculating holiday pay, although backdated claims were limited to the previous three months, preventing a tidal wave of claims.

Tribunal fees – The outcome of Unison’s Judicial Review on whether tribunal fees are unfair is due in early 2015. It is also fully expected that Employment Tribunal fees will be used as a political football in the run up to the election with some parties claiming they shall review or even abolish the current fee system.

Commission and holiday pay – The European Court of Justice in Lock v British Gas ruled in 2014 that an employee’s commission should be taken into consideration when calculating their holiday pay. The case is due to return to the UK for the employment tribunal in 2015 to apply the ECJ decision. This may result in having to change how we calculate holiday pay, particularly if employees receive commission. It could also potentially pave the way for thousands of backdated holiday pay claims.

Family friendly legislation - 2015 also sees the implementation of shared parental leave, that increases the flexibility with which new parents (or adoptive parents) can take their maternity/paternity leave for children born/adopted after April 5, 2015.

Luke Howells said: “2015 will be another challenging year for employers and they will need to ensure they keep up to date with changes to legislation as it becomes law otherwise they could find themselves being financially penalised through fines and compensation payouts.

"Information is easily accessible online but the tricky part can be implementing it correctly and making sure it is understood by all appropriate parties.”