On Thursday 14th April, we had the pleasure of holding the seminar “Employment Law: What to Expect in 2016”, organised in collaboration with Levenes Employment, part of Levenes Solicitors, member of the Spanish Chamber.
On this occasion, our Secretary General, Igor Urra, received attendees on behalf of our institution and introduced the speakers from Levenes Employment: Rachel Lester, Senior Solicitor and Shahzad Ayub, Solicitor.
To kick off the session, Shahzad Ayub introduced the company and revealed the main four aspects that would be covered during the session: Holiday Pay, National Living Wage, Gender Pay Reporting and Zero Hours Contracts.
After this brief introduction, he made reference to the minimum requirements and recent decisions taken on Holiday Pay, as well as explaining what payments should be included and how to calculate them properly.
Afterwards, the speaker focused on the five different rates of National Minimum Wage according to the different categories of worker by age. More importantly, he emphasised on one of these; the National Living Wage, which was introduced on 1 April 2016 and applies to workers aged 25 or over, and concluded this part of the talk explaining which workers are entitled to be taken into account.
Once Shahzad had finished his discourse, Rachel Lester took over to talk about the Gender Pay Gap Reporting, which is expected to come into force on 1st October 2016 in order to guarantee that male and female receive equal pay for equal work. In this sense, she focused on the information that employers will be required to publish and explained how to calculate both the mean and median pay.
Rachel then went on to explain which employers are affected and covered, as well as the consequences of non-compliance and the steps that employers should consider to prepare themselves for the new requirements.
To conclude the seminar, the speaker provided the attendees with useful information about the Zero Hours Contracts, which set out the terms of the relationship between an employer and a casual worker, and summarised how they can be of assistance with these issues.
The event then moved on to the Q&A session, where the representatives of Levenes Employment responded to all the questions from the attendees. Once the session finished, participants could enjoy an interactive networking breakfast while sharing thoughts and discussing further all the ideas covered in the talk.
Before finishing, we would like to thank all attendees for participating as well as the team of Levenes Employment for creating a very enjoyable and dynamic atmosphere and for delivering such a practical and interactive talk.
Last but not least, we encourage you to keep updated on all the activities of the Spanish Chamber by visiting our UPCOMING EVENTS section. You can also subscribe to our weekly electronic newsletter in order to receive updates on the latest activities of the Chamber!
