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Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006 SI 2006/1031

These Regulations implement the age strand of the EC Equal Treatment Framework Directive (No.2000/78), and prohibit discrimination on the ground of age. Under the new law, a default retirement age of 65 will be set, and employers wanting to retire employees at an earlier age will have to justify it. Employees will have a right to request working past the default retirement age, which the employer will be under a duty to consider. The upper age limits on unfair dismissal and redundancy pay will be removed. Notes on the new rules are available from the DTI website. *Note that, on 8 September the Government announced the pensions provisions in Reg 11 and Schedule 2 to the Regulations will not come into force until 1 December 2006.

The Statutory Paternity Pay and Statutory Adoption Pay (General) and the Statutory Paternity Pay and Statutory Adoption Pay (Weekly Rates) (Amendment) Regulations 2006 SI 2006/2236
The Statutory Maternity Pay, Social Security (Maternity Allowance) and Social Security (Overlapping Benefits) (Amendment) Regulations 2006 SI 2006/2379 		These Regulations, made under the Work and Families Act 2006, come into force on 1 October. They extend the period of statutory maternity pay and maternity allowance for women whose expected week of childbirth (EWC) falls on or after 1 April 2007 and statutory adoption pay for employees who adopt a child on or after the same date. While the Act provides for the period of pay to be extended from 26 to 52 weeks, these Regulations extend the period from 26 weeks to 39 weeks for the time being, with the expectation that this will be extended to 52 weeks by further Regulations before the end of the current Parliament.
Maternity and Parental Leave etc and Paternity and Adoption Leave (Amendment) Regulations 2006 SI 2006/2014 These Regulations, made under the Work and Families Act 2006, remove the current six months’ service requirement for an employee to claim additional maternity leave and increase the notice employees must give an employer of changes to their maternity leave plans. They will also introduce ‘keeping in touch days’ whereby an employee on maternity (or adoption) leave can agree with her employer to work for up to 10 days during the statutory maternity leave period, without that work bringing her period of maternity leave to an end. The Regulations will come into force in October 2006, with the changes taking effect for parents of children expected to be born or adopted on or after 1 April 2007.
The Working Time (Amendment) (No.2) Regulations 2006 SI 2006/2389 These Regulations have been introduced to confirm that the definition of offshore work in the WTR includes work performed in the British sector of the Continental Shelf (except in an area or part of an area of the Continental Shelf in which the law of Northern Ireland applies), as well as that performed within the territorial waters of the United Kingdom adjacent to Great Britain.
The Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) (Consequential Amendments) Regulations 2006 SI 2006/2405 These Regulations provide for references to the 1981 TUPE Regulations to be replaced with references to the 2006 TUPE Regulations in the Information and Consultation of Employees Regulations 2004; the Employment Tribunals (Constitution and Rules of Procedure) Regulations 2004; and the ACAS Arbitration Scheme (Great Britain) Order 2004.
Collective Redundancies (Amendment) Regulations 2006 SI 2006/2387 These Regulations amend S.193 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 to provide that in addition to the existing requirements of that section, an employer proposing collective redundancies must notify the Secretary of State of that proposal before giving notice of termination of employment. The amendment is made in consequence of the ECJ decision in Junk v Kühnel (Case C-188/03).
National Minimum Wage Regulations 1999 (Amendment) Regulations 2006 SI 2006/2001 These Regulations increase the national minimum wage rate to £5.35 per hour for workers of 22 or over; to £4.45 for those between 18 and 21 and; to £3.30 for those under 18.
The Gangmasters (Licensing Conditions) (No.2) Rules 2006 SI 2006/2373 These Rules establish the procedure for licensing gangmasters and the applicable conditions. Gangmasters who continue to trade without a licence will be acting illegally and face potential penalties of up to 10 years imprisonment and an unlimited fine.

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