April 2019 | Employment Law Services (ELS) LTD

There are new ‘Vento’ guidelines for injury to feelings awards in discrimination claims presented after 6 April 2019.

The new bands are:

lower band (less serious cases): £900 to £8,800
middle band: £8,800 to £26,300
upper band (the most serious cases): £26,300 to £44,000

This annual update to the Vento guidelines, setting out the bands of awards for injury to feelings, adjusted for inflation, is taken into account by Tribunals when considering what to award for damages in discrimination cases as a remedy for the hurt, humiliation and degradation suffered by the employee and is considered separately from any claim for financial loss such as loss of earnings.

The EqA 2010, most of which took effect on 1 October 2010, brought together and strengthened the previous discrimination legislation. It is concerned with discrimination in respect of the “protected characteristics” of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation.

An employer can be “vicariously liable” for discrimination or harassment committed by an employee in the course of employment. However, there is a defence available to an employer if it can show that it took all reasonable steps to prevent the employee from doing the discriminatory act or from doing anything of that description, commonly known as a “statutory defence”.

How can Employment Law Services (ELS) help?

At Employment Law Services (ELS) we can offer advice and support to Employers to help them to ensure they have taken all reasonable steps to prevent discrimination including, drafting appropriate HR policies and procedures, offering training courses and e-learning on equality and diversity and bullying and harassment and support with any individual issues that you may encounter.

If you are an employer who requires assistance with any of the issues raised in this blog contact us today for your free consultation 0800 612 4772.

The new bands are:

New National Minimum Wage (NMW) and National Living Wage (NLW) Rates take effect from 1 April.

	Old Rate	New Rate	Increase (%)


25 years +	£7.83	£8.21	4.9%
21-24 years	£7.38	£7.70	4.3%
18-20 years	£5.90	£6.15	4.2%
16-17 years	£4.20	£4.35	3.6%
Apprentice rate	£3.70	£3.90	5.4%

The national minimum wage (NMW) is a prescribed minimum hourly rate of pay which employers must legally pay to most of their workers. The legislation which underpins the NMW is highly technical in nature and many employers have unintentionally fallen foul of the rules and have, in addition to being hit with sizeable financial penalties, have been named and shamed for underpaying their workers.

Employers must keep sufficient records to establish that workers have received the NMW and it will be presumed that the worker has not received the NMW unless the employer can prove to the contrary.

The NMW is enforced by HMRC. The enforcement measures available to HMRC include service of notices of underpayment, civil penalties, “naming and shaming”, recovery of underpayments through tribunals or civil courts, and criminal prosecution. HMRC’s policy on using these measures is set out in BEIS: National Minimum Wage Law: Enforcement.

If you are unsure about what records you need to keep and/or how long you need to keep them don’t hesitate to contact us.

Month: April 2019

New Vento Bands For Injury to Feelings Awards

New National Minimum Wage Rates – 1 April 2019