The Minister for Employment Relations, Jo Swinson, confirmed on Twitter over the weekend that the Government plans to implement Section 16 of the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013 on financial penalties for employers from April 2014.
Section 16 of the Act enables tribunals to decide whether an employer has breached any of the worker’s rights to which the claim relates, and whether the breach has one or more “aggravating features”. The tribunal may then order the employer to pay a penalty to the Secretary of State, whether or not it also makes a financial award against the employer.
If the tribunal makes just a non-financial award, such as an order for reinstatement, then any financial penalty imposed must be at least £100 and cannot exceed £5,000.
If the remedy awarded by the employment tribunal to the claimant is a compensation award, then any financial penalty imposed must be set at 50 per cent of the amount of the claimant’s financial award, subject to a minimum of £100 and a maximum of £5,000.
If the employee brings two or more claims, then they will be treated as a single claim by the legislation. Any penalty is halved if the penalty is paid within 21 days of notice of the decision to impose the penalty being sent to the employer.
The tweet is being seen as confirmation that, although there is no implementation date for Section 16 on the Government’s indicative timetable, which was published in August, the date it has in mind is April 6 next year.