All small company owners must be aware that from the start of April a number of changes to employment law will be implemented that will affect how businesses are run.

Holiday entitlement
From the 1st of April employees who work a five day week will be entitled to 28 days paid holiday a year - up from the current legal level of 24 that only came into force in October 2007.

To calculate holiday entitlement for part-time employees whose leave year starts after the 1st of April 2009, business owners should divide the minimum entitlement of 28 days by the amount of days per week that they are contracted to work.

Statutory Sick Payment rates
For any business staff being absent through illness is a major issue, and this is exacerbated in the current economic climate when many firms have had to lay-off employees to save on costs.

Company owners must be aware that workers taking time off through sickness on or after April 5th are now legally entitled to a minimum rate of pay of £123.06 per week.

The standard weekly rate of Statutory Maternity Pay and Paternity Pay will also increase from £117.18 to £123.06 for payment weeks starting on or the after 5th of April 2009.

Flexible working regulations
Staff whose children are under six years old are already legally entitled to request flexible hours from their employer. This provision is being extended to employees who have children that are under 16 years old, or disabled children that are under 18 years old. If the request is reasonable and does not negatively affect the business or the individual's ability to do their job then it must be granted.

If an employee has a child aged 16 or under and they have worked for your firm for 26 weeks, then they will have the statutory right to ask for flexible working as of 6th April 2009.

Changes to disciplinary and dismissal procedures
From the 6th of April 2009, changes will be introduced with regard to how disputes are handled in the workplace. On this date new framework set out in the Employment Act 2008 will become law.

In respect of these changes The Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas) are launching a new service that will attempt to solve workplace grievances before they reach the employment tribunal system.

Initially the new service will only deal with unfair dismissal and discrimination cases but will expand to other issues such as redundancy payments and illegal wage deductions.

For more information about the new disciplinary measures visit the acas website here [1]