Last Minute Special Offers

Below are some reduced price courses only available to our newsletter readers:

*Prices exclude VAT.

Telephone: 01295 225500

News Items – at 28th June 2007

Treatment of Vulnerable Workers

Acas identifies gaps in legal employment protection

The latest issue of Acas’ quarterly Employment Relations Matters reviews the problems faced by migrant workers, agency and temporary workers, domestic and casual workers in exercising their employment rights.  In particular, the situation in the hotel and catering industry – called “an inhospitable sector” – is considered.  Although most bar and restaurant staff receive the national minimum wage, Acas research found a high incidence of flat rate payments per shift or per week, regardless of hours worked, below the NMW, and often paid cash in hand, exacerbated by workers being expected to work extra hours ‘until the last customer has left’ without extra pay.

Other articles in the publication look at the impact of the 2003 equality Regulations on sexual orientation and religion or belief, and the Leitch Review of adult skills.

Further information:
Acas Employment Relations Matters  http://www.acas.org.uk/media/pdf/7/4/ER_Matters_8_1.pdf

Juror Financial Loss Allowances

Increases from 2 July 2007

With effect from 2 July 2007, the maximum daily rates of the financial loss allowances available to jurors have been increased by 2.7%, as follows:

Increasing statutory holiday pay

Revised proposals for a phased increase to 28 days holiday each year

Note: The changes to holiday entitlements described below already affect employers with holiday years starting November 2006 or later.

In January 2007, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) published a detailed consultation document on the Government’s proposals to increase the annual statutory leave entitlement, as set out in the Working Time Regulations 1998, from 4 weeks to 5.6 weeks – effectively an additional 8 days for a five-day worker.  We published a detailed summary of the proposals at that time, including some ready-reckoner tables to help employers handle the two-year transitional period.

The DTI has now published the results of that consultation and has made a small number of changes to the initial proposals.  There is a further consultation period to obtain comments on a number of specific outstanding issues and a draft version of the Working Time (Amendment) Regulations 2007 (Amendment Regulations) have also been issued.  The Parliamentary procedures are expected to be completed by July, allowing the first phase of the new entitlements to take effect from 1 October 2007.

There are three key changes to the January 2007 proposals:

• The introduction of the second increase from 4.8 to 5.6 weeks is delayed until 1 April 2009. The initial increase will come into effect on 1 October 2007, as originally suggested.
• Payment in lieu of the additional holiday entitlement (the additional 0.8 weeks) can continue until 1 April 2009.  This is a temporary measure to help employers with transitional arrangements, such as recruiting and training any additional staff to cover the increased holiday entitlement.
• An incentive for early compliance with the regulations is provided for employers who, at 1 October 2007, already meet the full requirements of the Regulations that will apply from 1 April 2008.

As the delay in introducing the second part of the increase in entitlement is delayed until 2009, the ready-reckoner tables previously provided are now out-of date.  As a result, this news item updates the earlier summary and replaces it completely.

1. Scope
The new provisions will apply to all workers covered by the Working Time Regulations 1998, including agency workers, in England, Scotland and Wales.  They will also apply to workers with their own equivalent working time provisions, namely the Road Transport Regulations 2005, the Merchant Shipping (Working Time: Inland Waterways) Regulations 2003, and the Fishing Vessels (Working Time: Sea-fishermen) Regulations 2004.  However, the Government intends to amend the regulations for mobile workers on inland waterways and those involved in sea-fishing separately from these amendments to the general Working Time Regulations to avoid confusion over differing regulations.

They will not, however, apply to agricultural workers in Scotland covered by Orders made by the Scottish Agricultural Wages Board or to workers covered by the Civil Aviation (Working Time) Regulations 2004, which are being reviewed separately, or the Merchant Shipping (Hours of Work) Regulations 2002, which are also currently subject to other changes to relevant international treaties.

The proposals do not apply to Northern Ireland.  However, equivalent proposals were issued by the Department for Employment and Learning in February 2007, the only difference being an increase of 10 days in the annual entitlement to 6 weeks, to reflect the 10 bank holidays that apply in Northern Ireland.

2. New entitlements
The proposals are that the current four weeks’ annual leave entitlement will be supplemented by an additional leave period of 1.6 weeks, introduced in two stages, namely

• an additional 0.8 weeks from 1 October 2007, and
• a further 0.8 weeks from 1 April 2009.

The resulting 5.6 weeks will be subject to an absolute maximum of 28 days.  This gives five-day workers an entitlement to 28 days paid leave in a year but limits the number of days leave for six-day workers to their current 24 days, plus an additional four days only.

These are statutory minimum entitlements and do not prevent employers from providing greater contractual entitlement, as many already do.  As all paid days of holiday count towards the statutory entitlement, including paid bank holidays, many employers are already providing at least 28 days paid holiday to their five-day workers – the minimum entitlement from April 2009.

3. Payment in lieu of taking holiday
The existing Regulations do not permit a payment to be made in lieu of any of the current 4 weeks annual leave entitlement, other than on termination of employment.  The same rule will apply to the additional 1.6 weeks leave when it is fully introduced on 1 April 2009.  However, between October 2007 and March 2009, any of the initial 0.8 weeks additional leave may be replaced by a payment in lieu if it is not taken as holiday.  This allows employers who provide contractual leave in excess of 4 weeks to continue, in effect, to retain their existing arrangements for paying up untaken contractual entitlement  until April 2009.

4. Carrying holiday over to the following holiday year
Under the current rules, none of the 4 weeks annual leave entitlement that has not been taken by the end of the employee’s holiday year may be carried forward to the next holiday year.  This rule will not apply to the additional 1.6 weeks.  As a result, from October 2007, a five-day worker will be able to carry forward 4 days to the next holiday year and, from April 2009, will be able to carry forward 8 days.  It must be taken in that next holiday year and may not be carried forward again.  This concession is not a blanket entitlement for all workers but is subject to the existence of contractual arrangements. 

5. Transitional arrangements
The transitional rules require workers’ entitlements to be increased in proportion to the period remaining of their holiday year at October 2007 and at April 2009.

Example: A workers’ holiday year runs from the beginning of January.  There are three months of the 2007 holiday year remaining at October 2007 and nine months remaining of the 2009 holiday year at April 2009 .  The statutory holiday leave is

• 4.2 weeks in the leave year starting January 2007, i.e.
  • 4 weeks annual leave entitlement, plus
  • 0.2 weeks additional leave entitlement (for October to December 2007), i.e. 0.8 weeks × 3 ÷ 12.
• 4.8 weeks in the leave year starting January 2008, i.e.
  • 4 weeks annual leave entitlement, plus
  • 0.8 weeks additional leave entitlement.
• 5.4 weeks in the leave year starting January 2009, i.e.
  • 4 weeks annual leave entitlement, plus
  • 0.2 weeks additional leave entitlement (for January to March 2009), i.e. 0.8 weeks × 3 ÷ 12, plus
  • 1.2 weeks additional leave entitlement (for April to December 2009), i.e. 1.6 weeks × 9 ÷ 12.
• 5.6 weeks in the leave year starting January 2010, i.e.
  • 4 weeks annual leave entitlement, plus
  • 1.6 weeks additional leave entitlement.

The Amendment Regulations do not define the way in which the “proportion” of the period remaining of a holiday year should be calculated.  The example above, which is based on the DTI’s own example, uses whole calendar months.  As most employer’s holiday years run from the start of a month, whole months can be used to calculate the proportion.  If a holiday year starts mid-month, a proportion using the number of weeks or days remaining in the holiday year would have to be used.

Transferring the results from the example to actual working arrangements introduces the problem of rounding when calculating entitlements.  The problem already exists but is aggravated by the additional entitlements not being whole weeks.  The following chart shows the new entitlements from the example above for workers who work from one to six days in a week.

The rounding problem becomes more apparent if, for example, we take a holiday year that gives a proportion that is not a quarter or half of a year.

Example: A workers’ holiday year runs from the beginning of May.  There are seven months of the 2007/08 holiday year remaining at October 2007 and one month remaining of the 2008/09 holiday year at April 2009 .  The statutory holiday leave is

• 4.467 weeks in the leave year starting May 2007, i.e.
  • 4 weeks annual leave entitlement, plus
  • 0.467 weeks additional leave entitlement (for October 2007 to April 2008), i.e. 0.8 weeks × 7 ÷ 12.
• 4.866 weeks in the leave year starting May 2008, i.e.
  • annual leave entitlement is 4 weeks, plus
  • 0.733 weeks additional leave entitlement (for May to March 2009), i.e. 0.8 weeks × 11 ÷ 12, plus
  • 0.133 weeks additional leave entitlement (for April 2009), i.e. 1.6 weeks × 1 ÷ 12.
• 5.6 weeks in the leave year starting May 2009, i.e.
  • annual leave entitlement is 4 weeks, plus
  • 1.6 weeks additional leave entitlement.

Transferring those annual entitlements to workers who work different numbers of days each week gives the following results.

The following chart summarises the annual entitlements for holiday years over the transition period.

Employers that handle holiday entitlements in hours rather than days may continue to do the same with the additional entitlement.  A workers’ normal working hours may be multiplied by the appropriate number of weeks annual leave plus additional leave.  Using the same example of entitlements for a four-day worker and a holiday year starting in May, if the worker’s weekly contracted hours are 30, the annual and additional entitlement would be 134.1 hours (4.47 × 30) from May 2007, 146.1 hours (4.87 × 30) from May 2008, and 168 hours (5.6 × 30) from May 2009.

6. Disapplication where employer already provides 5.6 weeks entitlement
The new requirements set out in sections 1 to 5 above are disapplied by the Amendments Regulations where an employer already, at 1 October 2007, provides contractually, in addition to the 4 weeks annual leave entitlement, at least 1.6 weeks or 8 days additional leave entitlement (whichever is the lesser) provided that the additional leave entitlement

• may not be replaced by a payment in lieu except on termination of employment,
• may not be carried forward other than to the next leave year, and
• is paid for at not less than the rate of a “week’s pay” as defined in the Employment Rights Act 1996.

These conditions do not apply to any contractual leave provided in excess of the lesser of 5.6 weeks or 28 days.

This arrangement means that employers who already meet the new statutory leave requirements in full do not, in effect, have to do anything about the new leave rules except to ensure that they do not, in future, fall below the statutory requirements in any way or for any workers or groups of workers.

7. Rounding rules
The existing Working Time Regulations provide rounding rules for calculating the holiday entitlement of workers between the day they start a new job and the end of their first holiday year.  For example, a five-day worker starting a new job on 5 August in a holiday year that runs from 1 April is entitled to 13.1 days paid leave (i.e. 20 days ÷ 365 × 239) in the remainder of the holiday year, but the Regulations require it to be rounded up to 14 days.

When the Amendment Regulations come into force, these rounding rules will be removed.  (Note, however, that the rounding rules, which apply to the accrual procedure for managing the rate at which holidays are taken in the first year of employment, are retained.  See Accrual in the first year of employment, below.)

The effect of the removal of the rounding rules for

1. the calculation of annual leave entitlement for new workers, and
2. the calculation of annual and additional leave entitlement from October 2007 onwards

is that the minimum statutory entitlement will, in many cases, include decimal fractions.    So, for example,

1. the new worker described above will be entitled to 13.1 days paid holiday in the remainder of the holiday year, not 14 days,
2. a current four-day worker with a holiday year starting in June will be entitled to 18.13 days of paid holiday from June 2007 and 19.73 days from June 2008.

Employers may, if they wish, round the minimum entitlements up for administrative convenience and, of course, many employers are already providing holiday entitlements in excess of the April 2009 entitlement of 5.6 weeks when bank holidays are included.  But those employers who include bank holidays in the 4 weeks entitlement are likely to have great difficulty in handling holiday entitlements that include decimal fractions.  How is an employer to give a worker 0.1 paid days holiday, as example (a), or 0.13 paid days holiday, as example (b)?  The entitlements may not be rounded down.  But perhaps that dilemma is better than being required to round 0.1 or 0.13 days up to a whole day of paid holiday.

8. Accrual in the first year of employment
The Working Time Regulations include a special provision, enabling employers to limit the rate at which a worker takes paid leave in the first year of employment.  It is an accrual arrangement that limits a worker, if the employer wishes to use the facility, to one twelfth of the annual four-week entitlement in the first month of employment, two twelfths in the first two months, three-twelfths in the first three months, and so on.  The result of this calculation, as long as it is not an exact half or whole day, is rounded up to the next half or whole day.

The Amendment Regulations make provision for this same approach to apply to the additional leave entitlement.  For example, an employment with a leave year starting April 2007 has a leave entitlement of 4.4 weeks.  If a five-day worker starts in that employment on 4 June 2007, the employer may, by applying the special accrual rules, limit the holiday taken in

• the first month, i.e. up to 3 July 2007, to 1.83 days, i.e. 4.4 × 5 ÷ 12, rounded up to 2 days,
• the first two months, i.e. up to 3 August 2007, to 3.67 days, i.e. 4.4 × 5 ÷ 6, rounded up to 4 days,
• the first three months, i.e. up to 3 September 2007, to 5.5 days, i.e. 4.4 × 5 ÷ 4, with no rounding required,

and so on for twelve months.

Note that the results of this accrual process are not holiday leave entitlements.  They do not mean, for example, that a worker is entitled to 4 days in the two months to 3 August.  They mean only that the employer may, if he wishes, limit the amount of the worker’s annual entitlement that may be taken in the two months to 4 days, to prevent, for example, the worker taking 2 weeks paid holiday in the first two months and then leaving.

9. Calculating weekly working hours
The Working Time Regulations limit the average number of hours that a worker may work in a “reference period” to 48 hours per week.  The reference period is a period of 17 weeks, although it can be extended to 26 weeks or to 52 weeks in certain circumstances.  The average number of hours per week is calculated by dividing the number of hours worked in the reference period by the number of weeks in the reference period.  However, if there are any “excluded days” in the reference period, the number of hours worked in the equivalent number of days following the end of the reference period must be added to the total number of hours worked.

Any part of the four weeks annual holiday entitlement that falls within a reference period is treated as being “excluded days”, with the result that paid leave cannot be used to reduce the average hours worked in a reference period.  However, the Amendment Regulations make no changes to this arrangement, with the effect that any days of additional statutory holidays are not excluded days and therefore serve to reduce the average worked hours in the reference period.

10. Understanding the new entitlements
The current right to four weeks’ paid annual leave, as set out in the Working Time Regulations 1998, meets the UK’s obligations under the European Working Time Directive.  Not having any statutory authority of its own to increase the four-week period of holiday leave, the Government gave itself the necessary domestic powers by means of provisions in the Work and Families Act 2006.  These powers allow the Government to change almost any aspect of statutory holiday pay as long as the minimum requirements of the Working Time Directive are maintained.

The distinction between the holiday entitlement provided under the Working Time Directive and the additional entitlement provided under the Work and Families Act is maintained in the way that the new provisions have been added to the Working Time Regulations 1998.  In particular, a workers’ “annual leave” is still fixed at four weeks – the extra 1.6 days is defined separately as “additional leave”.  There are two separate entitlements and, by treating them separately in the Regulations, the Government is able to apply different rules to each of them.  The principal differences in the rules are:

• Additional leave may be carried forward by agreement to the next leave year but annual leave may not.
• Days of annual leave are “excluded days” for the purpose of calculating average weekly hours but days of additional leave are not.
• Workers covered by the Agricultural Wages (Scotland) Act 1949 are entitled to annual leave but are excluded from entitlement to additional leave as the holiday entitlement of such workers has been devolved to the Scottish Parliament.

11. Other holiday provisions
The changes made by the Amendment Regulations only affect holiday entitlement and how the additional entitlement must be handled.  Other holiday provisions in the Working Time Regulations, including the calculation of a week’s pay, are unchanged.  Employers may continue to require holidays to be taken at specific times, e.g. plant closures and bank holidays, set notice periods for booking holidays, and refuse requests to take leave, e.g. at peak work times. 

12. Cost impact on businesses
The Government estimates that the cost of introducing additional leave will be between £3.3 and £4.4 billion, spread over the transition period.  However, there should be no impact on the estimated 81% of employers who already provide at least 28 paid days holiday, or 20 days holiday plus bank holidays, other than where

• workers are given a day off in lieu of a bank holiday because they are required to take leave on the bank  holiday but were taking some other form of paid leave (e.g. maternity or sick leave) on that day, or
• the employer currently buys out holiday entitlement in excess of four weeks but will only be able to buy out holiday entitlement in excess of 5.6 weeks under the new rules.

Of particular note for employers in hospitality and retail, where the impact is expected to be the greatest, the Government  has passed on its research and summary of consultation responses to the Low Pay Commission, requesting that the impact of the increased holiday entitlement be taken into account when recommending the future level of the National Minimum Wage.

13. Timetable for introduction
The DTI is continuing to ask for comments from interested parties on such issues as the drafting of the Regulations, any inadvertent consequences, measures to help employers implement the changes, and the content of written guidance.  However, the new leave entitlements and the rules governing them are now fixed.

The Regulations have been laid before Parliament and are expected to be approved by early July, before coming into effect on 1 October 2007.  The Regulations will follow the affirmative resolution procedure, requiring consideration and debate by both Houses of Parliament for approval.

Further information:
Summary of responses and Government response to the consultation  http://www.dti.gov.uk/files/file39592.pdf 
Final regulatory impact assessment   http://www.dti.gov.uk/files/file39873.pdf
Working Time (Amendment) Regulations 2007  http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2007/draft/ukdsi_9780110773766_en.pdf

HMRC to merge employee database records

Improving PAYE services for employers and employees

HMRC has announced that, in 2008, all PAYE records will be merged onto a single computer system.  This will replace the twelve separate geographical databases that are used at present and will give HMRC staff access to all of an employee’s pay, tax, National Insurance, benefits and pension information in one place.  Having all of an employee’s information in one place should mean that both employer and employee queries will be dealt with more quickly and completely.

This change does not involve any changes in the data held or the PAYE rules.  Customers will not have to do anything different when they contact HMRC.
Further information:

Payroll deadlines during the next month

June 22 For employers required to pay tax and NICs to the Accounts Office monthly, this is the deadline for electronic payments to be cleared into the HMRC bank account. Payments through BACS must be initiated by June 20 at the latest.

July 5 – This is the final day of tax month 3. Tax and NICs etc for payments made in the tax month to July 5, or in the tax quarter to July 5, are due for payment to the Accounts Office by July 19, or by July 22 if paid electronically.

July 6 – This is the deadline date for filing, in paper form or electronically,

• Form P9D Expenses payments and income from which tax cannot be deducted
  
• Form P11D Expenses and Benefits
• Form P11D(b) Return of Class 1A National Insurance contributions due and Return of expenses and benefits – Employer’s declaration
  Copies of forms P9D and P11D must also be given to the employees concerned by this date.

July 19 – This is the deadline for payment of tax and NICs to the Accounts Office, for tax month 3 by employers who pay monthly, for tax months 1 to 3 by employers who pay quarterly, unless they make their payments electronically.

July 19 – This is the deadline for payment of Class 1A NICs to the Accounts Office in respect of benefits in kind reported by employers on forms P11D for the 2006/07 tax year, unless they make their payments electronically.

July 20 – (July 22 is a Sunday) – For employers who pay their tax and NICs to the Accounts Office electronically, this is the deadline for electronic payments, including payments of Class 1A NICs to be cleared into the HMRC bank account. Payments through BACS must be initiated by July 18 at the latest.

Payroll FAQ's

Purchases Made on Behalf of the Employer

What procedure should be used when an employee or director makes a purchase on behalf of the employer?

(In these notes, the term “employee” includes a company director.)  When an employee makes a purchase in a shop, restaurant, petrol filling station, etc., the legal position is that the employee is assumed to be making the purchase and is, therefore, personally liable to pay for the goods or services.  The method of payment does not change the situation.  The fact that the employee uses the employer’s credit card to pay for the goods or services, or pays cash and is subsequently reimbursed by the employer, does not change the fact that a contract has been formed between the employee and the vendor, not between the employer and the vendor.

As a result, when the employer pays the credit card bill or reimburses the employee’s expenditure, the employer is settling the employee’s debt.  Such a payment falls within the definition of “earnings” for NICs purposes.  For tax purposes, the employee has received a benefit that is “money’s worth”, i.e. “of direct monetary value” to the employee.  A liability for both tax and Class 1 NICs arises at the time payment is made to the credit card company or the expenditure is reimbursed.

• For tax purposes, the amount of the payment is reported
  • in the case of a credit card payment, in Section C of form P11D or in Section B of form P9D, as appropriate,
  • in the case of a reimbursement, in Section N of form P11D or in Section A(1) of form P9D, as appropriate.
• For Class 1 NICs purposes, the amount of the payment is added to gross pay for NICs purposes in the earnings period in which the credit card bill is paid or the expenditure is reimbursed.

However, liability for Class 1 NICs can be excluded to the extent that the payment can be shown to cover specific and distinct business expenses.

Example:  Using the employer’s credit card, an employee buys a digital camera for £300 and some stationery for the business costing £100.  He does not indicate that he is entering into a contract as agent for the employer.  The employee is able to use the camera for both business and personal use, but the stationery is exclusively for business use.  The employer subsequently settles the credit card account.  For tax purposes, the employer must report the £400 in Section C on the employee’s P11D and the employee may claim tax relief on the £100.  There is a liability for Class 1 NICs on the £300 payment and that amount must be added to the employee’s gross pay in the earnings period in which the credit card account was settled.  However, there is no NICs liability on the £100 purchase as it was a specific and distinct business expense.

The situation described in this example would have been different if the employee had made it clear at the time of purchase that he was acting as agent for the employer, perhaps by obtaining a receipt that was made out in the employer’s name.  In that case, there would still have been a tax liability, reportable in Section L of form P11D as an asset placed at the employee’s disposal.  The employee would not, however, have had an NICs liability as the benefit is liable for Class 1A NICs, paid by the employer.

To avoid the Class 1 NICs liability problem altogether, the employee, when making purchases on behalf of the employer, must make it clear at the time of “point of sale” that the contract is between the employer and the vendor.  The point at which the contract between vendor and purchaser comes into effect is not necessarily at the time that the cash or credit card or fuel card is proffered in payment.  Examples of the point of sale for different types of transaction are:

• when buying fuel from a filling station, at the time the vehicle is filled up
• when eating in a restaurant, at the time the order is placed
• in shops, at the time of payment.

If, at the point of sale, it is clear to the supplier that the purchase is being made by the employee acting as agent for the employer, there is no liability for Class 1 NICs, regardless of how the bill is settled.  To achieve this, the employee may, for example, present a purchase order from the employer, obtain a receipt made out in the employer’s name, or simply state that the purchase is being made on behalf of the employer.

Perhaps the most critical situation where this procedure should be followed is when an employee purchases fuel for a company or private vehicle using cash or the employer’s credit card or fuel card.  If an employee simply fills the car with fuel at a filling station and uses cash or the fuel card to make the payment, the contract for the fuel has been made by the employee personally with the supplier.  A liability for Class 1 NICs arises at the time the credit card bill is settled by the employer or the expenditure is reimbursed. 

As the fuel purchased for a vehicle may be used for both private and business use, this liability for Class 1 NICs cannot be reduced under the “specific and distinct” business expense provision.  Both the employer and employee must pay Class 1 NICs on the full cost of the fuel.

To avoid the problem, a procedure that has come to be known as the “litany” must be used.  There is no Class 1 NICs liability if

• the employee is authorised to make purchases on the employer’s behalf, and
• the employee explains to the vendor in advance of the contract for purchase that the purchase is made on behalf of the employer, and
• the vendor accepts that the purchase is made on behalf of the employer.

It is clearly impossible to tell whether, in any particular case, an employee has made it clear to the vendor in advance of the contract that the purchase is made on behalf of the employer.  It is essential, therefore, that the employer has evidence, in the form of a written instruction, that employees who pay by cash or use credit cards in this way are actually authorised to enter into a contract on behalf of the employer and know the procedure and are required to follow it.

BAILIWICK OF JERSEY
Maternity, Paternity and Family Friendly Working
Consultation on proposals to introduce legislation

The Employment Forum has issued a Consultation Paper to obtain views on the proposals to legislate on the introduction of maternity, paternity and family friendly working rights.  The document reviews the existing family-related provisions in Jersey and summarises the rights available in the United Kingdom, Isle of Man, Guernsey and elsewhere.

The major part of the Consultation Paper is a detailed questionnaire that seeks views on a broad range of options, particularly from employers, for introducing maternity, paternity and adoption rights, parental leave, flexible working, time off for dependents and alternative leave provisions.

The consultation closes on 10 August 2007.

Further information:
Consultation Paper - Maternity, Paternity and Family Friendly Working  http://www.gov.je/NR/rdonlyres/22972F58-F2BF-4839-A7A3-
94215E3EEDFA/0/ConsultationdraftFinal15Jun07.pdf

REPUBLIC OF IRELAND
National Minimum Wage
New rates from 1 July 2007

In December 2006, two increases to the national minimum wage were announced.  From 1 January 2007, the rate for experienced adult workers increased, after a gap of 20 months, to €8.30 per working hour.  The second increase, to €8.65, is effective from 1 July 2007.

Further information:

Readers Newsletter Forum

If you have any HR or payroll related questions that you think other people who receive this newsletter will be able to answer, please email us and we will add your question to our newsletter.

An area dedicated to readers of the newsletter to enable you to:

• share your comments or views on anything in the newsletter
• to ask a question of other readers, or the tutor team
• to relate a humorous event or story related to HR or payroll
• to provide a useful tip, or seek advice on a software problem
• or maybe to simply provide recruitment information

contact: daniel.ruffle@hrdps.co.uk or reg@hrdps.co.uk

Click Here if you wish to unsubscribe