New regulations on payslips for all workers

The Employment Rights Act 1996 (Itemised Pay Statement) (Amendment) Order 2018 comes into force from 6th April 2019. Under this Order, employers will need to:

(a) provide payslips to all workers, and

(b) show hours on payslips where the pay varies by the amount of time worked.

Prior to the activation of the Order, only employees have had the statutory right to receive an itemised payslip. Now it will be extended to all workers.

The new right applies to payslips which cover pay periods that begin on or after 6th April.

Some categories of workers are excluded from the right to receive a payslip; these include members of the armed forces or merchant seamen and women.

Enforcement

If a worker thinks that they have not received a payslip or that it doesn’t include the information required under the Order, they can bring an Employment Tribunal claim.

If the tribunal finds in their favour, it must make a declaration to this effect, which it may publish on its website.

It may also order repayment of any unnotified deductions that were made in the 13 weeks before the claim was presented, even if the employer was otherwise entitled to make the deductions.

rradar Employment solicitor Richard Beschizza commented:

‘The aim of the new legislation is to provide transparency for workers whose pay is affected by the amount of time they work.

"As the guidance states, if the legislation is not followed the worker can bring a claim in the Employment Tribunal, although the remedy is limited to a declaration rather than an award of compensation. The potential challenge will be assessing whether an individual is a worker, and employers might inadvertently fall foul of the law, in particular if there is a belief that the individual is in fact self-employed and does not even have ‘worker’ status. Claims involving disputed employment status can be complicated and legal costs can be high, even though the remedy itself is of no value. Employers should therefore seek advice if there is any uncertainty about whether an individual, whose pay varies with the amount of work undertaken, is an employee, worker or genuinely self-employed."

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