Quarterly News

Employers' update

Smoke free

The Health Act 2006 includes provisions to make enclosed public places and workplaces smoke free from 1 July 2007. This date applies to England, as Wales and Ireland became smoke free on 2 and 30 April 2007 respectively and Scotland has already passed its first anniversary of the introduction of the law which became effective from 26 March 2006. The Act obliges employers to prohibit and take steps to prevent smoking on their premises. Clearly visible 'No Smoking' signs must be displayed at the entrance to premises that are 'enclosed' or 'substantially enclosed' (these terms are defined in the regulations).

Smoking rooms will no longer be allowed as complete smoking bans must be imposed. However you can decide to provide a smoking area outside but still on your premises, providing the area is not 'substantially enclosed'. All company vehicles used by more than one person are covered by the legislation and must display an appropriate 'No Smoking' sign.

The Smokefree England website contains lots of useful information to enable businesses to get ready for the change. For those parts of the UK which are already smoke free it enables businesses to ensure that they are complying with the law. The website address is www.smokefreeengland.co.uk.

Minimum holiday entitlement to rise

The Department for Trade and Industry (DTI) has been consulting on the proposal to increase the minimum holiday entitlement from the current 20 days to 28 days. The current limit of 20 days includes statutory bank holidays. The proposal is to increase the statutory annual leave entitlement in two stages:

• rising from 20 to 24 days on 1 October 2007, and
• from 24 to 28 days on 1 October 2008.

If the proposal becomes law employers will have to increase holiday entitlements from 1 October 2007. As this may not coincide with the holiday year it will have to be awarded proportionally from 1 October.

An employee currently entitled to the statutory minimum entitlement of 20 days (including bank holidays) with a holiday year to March 2008 would be entitled to two additional days for the 6 months covered by the increased minimum entitlement from 1 October 2007 to 31 March 2008. (4 day increase from 1 October 2007 pro rated for 6 months).

Research has shown that up to six million workers would benefit from the extra eight days holiday each year under the proposals.

The DTI consultation closed in April and details of the findings will be announced in May, too late to be included in this edition but we will keep you informed of developments.

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