Here’re the 5 employment law developments you should be keeping your eye on in 2018.

1. GDPR will come into effect

On May 25^th, 2018, The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which updates and harmonises data protection law across the EU, will come into effect.

This means organisations will undertake data audits as well as policy reviews in the build-up to the month of May, ensuring that their data protection practices are GDPR compliant.

Because of this, a significant number of employers will have to update or devise new privacy notices for their employees. These will outline what data they have collected and how it’s being used.

2. Gender pay gap report

April 4^th, 2018 is the deadline for the first gender pay gap reports to be published.

The reports must be published by all private and voluntary sector employers who have over 250 members of staff.

Similarly, specified public-sector employers with over 250 members of staff are also required to publish their first gender pay gap reports by March 30^th, 2018.

The reports will take data from 2016 to 2017 and will include the differences in mean pay, median pay, mean bonus pay and median bonus pay between male and females.

3. Minimum wage rates rise

On April 1^st, 2018 (and no, this isn’t a joke) The National Living Wage for employees aged 25 and over will increase to £7.83 per hour.

As well as this, other NLW rates will increase as follows:

• £7.38 per hour for workers aged 21 to 24.
• £5.90 per hour for workers aged 18 to 20.
• £4.20 for workers aged 18 who are no longer of compulsory school age.

4. Statutory family pay amounts uprated

Here’s another one to remember this April fool’s days – the weekly amount for statutory family pay rates will increase to £145.18.

This applies to maternity pay, paternity pay, adoption pay, shared parental pay and maternity allowance.

5. Brexit preparations

As we reported last month, the first stages of a Brexit deal were agreed with the European Commission, with terms outlining the protection of the rights of EU citizens currently residing in the UK to live and work following Brexit. This announcement provides employers with more certainty as they continue to develop their plans around Brexit.