Employment e-Brief – Statutory Payments Rise, Compensation Limits Fall

Philip Paget, employment partner

The Employment Rights (Revision of Limits) Order 2009, which sets out revised tribunal compensation limits applicable from 1 February 2010, has been published.

Under s.34 of the Employment Rights Act 1999, certain limits must be revised to reflect changes in the Retail Prices Index (RPI) for September and the latest revisions reflect the decrease in the RPI by 1.4% over the year to September 2009.

These changes can be summarised as follows:

• The maximum compensatory award for unfair dismissal will fall from £66,200 to £65,300 from 1 February 2010;
• Statutory maternity, paternity and adoption pay will rise from £123.06 to £124.88 a week from April 2010.  The weekly earnings threshold for these payments will rise from £95 to £97;
• The minimum amount of compensation where an individual is unlawfully excluded or expelled from a union and not admitted or re-admitted by the date of a tribunal application falls from £7,300 to £7,200;
• The maximum guarantee payment payable to an employee in respect of any day under s.31(1) of the Employment Rights Act 1996 falls from £21.50 to £21.20;
• The minimum basic award for certain unfair dismissals (eg. dismissals for reasons of trade union membership or activities, health and safety duties, pension scheme trustee duties or acting as an employee representative) changes to £4,700;
• Statutory sick pay (currently £79.15 a week) remains unaffected;
• The upper limit on a week’s pay (currently £380) remains unaffected and will not change again until February 2011.

Please contact a member of the Employment team on 0113 227 0100 if you have any queries.