Financial Services Bill

The Bill, which has been introduced to Parliament today, is intended to make banking remuneration more appropriate and transparent, with a better link between remuneration and effective risk management.

The Bill contains provisions for the introduction of regulations for reporting requirements on authorised persons concerning remuneration. It also obliges the FSA to introduce rules to require authorised persons to have (and to act in accordance with) a remuneration policy that must be consistent with the effective management of risks and the Implementation Standards issued by the Financial Stability Board in September. The Bill provides that if the FSA considers that a remuneration policy is non-compliant it can require the policy to be revised, may prohibit persons from being remunerated in a specified way, provide that any provision of an agreement (such as a service agreement) that contravenes such prohibition is void for non-compliance and provide for the recovery of any payment made pursuant to a provision which is so void. We will send out another law-now when we have the FSA rules.

Equality Bill

The Equality Bill has stalled recently but the Government has reaffirmed its commitment to making the Bill law. The Bill will consolidate existing laws on discrimination, as well as make a number of changes to reduce discrimination in the workplace. These include promoting transparency on gender pay discrimination, banning the use of “pay secrecy” clauses, extending the concept of positive action and strengthening the enforcement powers of employment tribunals.

Bribery Bill

Although not limited to the employment field this Bill will introduce penalties for employees who make bribes, as well as make it a criminal offence for employers who fail to prevent a bribe being paid by employees or by other parties who provide services on their behalf. Employers should review their practices and procedures to ensure they have appropriate measures in place to prevent or minimise the risk of bribery.

Agency workers

The Government has reaffirmed its commitment to implement the Agency Workers Directive (2008/104/EC) by giving agency workers the right to equal treatment with permanent staff on pay, holidays and other basic conditions. Consultation is being undertaken and the relevant regulations are scheduled to come into force on 1 October 2011. At present the Government intends to implement on the basis of the CBI/TUC agreement of May 2008, which allows for equal treatment to apply once a temporary agency worker has been in a given job for 12 weeks.

Of course, it remains to be seen whether the Government will be able to get any of the above legislation through before the general election next year.