Increases in National Minimum Wage from October 2010

The rates will be:

• £5.93 per hour for those aged 21 and above (the higher rate applies to 21-year olds for the first time from October 2010.
• £4.93 per hour for those aged 18 to 21 years.
• £3.64 per hour for those aged 16 to 17 years.

Also it is untended to introduce an apprentice minimum wage of £2.50 per hour from 1st October. The new rate will apply to those apprentices who are under 19 or those that are 19 and over but in the first year of their apprenticeship.

Test Case

In a recent tribunal Shah v First West Yorkshire Ltd (ET/1809311/09) the employment tribunal made a decision that an employee who had been off work sick at the time of their holiday was entitled to be allowed to carry over that holiday into the following holiday year if it was not possible for him to take it during the same holiday year. This is unusual as under the Working Time Regulations employees do not have the right to carry over untaken holiday into the next leave year. However in this case it was decided that the primary health and safety purpose of the regulation was to allow employees paid periods of holiday to be taken throughout the year and to deny this would be against the ‘underlying thrust’ of the legislation.