LAST month we took a look at the predictions for the 2008 employment law year.

We are now able to look in more detail at specific employment law changes for which you need to be prepared in the next few months.

First of all we have the regulations implementing the annual increase of certain statutory payments and maximum Employment Tribunal award limits which came into force from February 1 and apply to dismissals on or after that date.

The limit on a week's pay for calculating statutory redundancy payments and the basic award for unfair dismissal purposes increases from £310 to £330 a week.

The maximum basic award for unfair dismissal increases from £9,300 to £9,900 and the maximum compensatory award for unfair dismissal increases from £60,600 to £63,000.

You may have seen or heard TV and radio advertising recently on the introduction from February 29 of a new system of civil penalties whereby employers who negligently hire illegal workers face a maximum fine of up to £10,000 for each illegal worker found at a business.

There will be a sliding scale of financial penalties with the actual amount decided by the Border and Immigration Agency. This is extremely serious and as an employer you must be fastidious about monitoring this.

In March look out for the report of the independent review into the extension of flexible working rights to parents with children older than six and for draft regulations implementing this and begin to make plans for changes to flexible working policies accordingly (possibly coming into effect in April or October 2008).

The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 comes into force on April 6.

The Act creates a new offence of corporate manslaughter and will allow organisations to be prosecuted for organisational or management failures that lead to the deaths of employees and others.

Prepare for this by reviewing your health and safety policies, examining what happens in practice and how health and safety issues are enforced.

Decide who is appointed as senior management for the purposes of the Act and put in place a process to enable employees to report concerns confidentially. You should also check whether your insurance covers criminal prosecutions.

Also on April 6 The Occupational and Personal Pension Schemes (Consultation by Employers and Miscellaneous Amendment) Regulations 2006 will be extended to cover to undertakings with 50 or more employees.

The current threshold is 100 or more employees. The Regulations require employers to undertake consultation before making changes to occupational and personal pension schemes.

The Equal Opportunities Commission has been successful in an application for judicial review of the implementation of the Equal Treatment Directive through the Employment Equality (Sex Discrimination) Regulations 2005, which amended the Sex Discrimination Act 1975.

The High Court found that the regulations did not adequately implement the Equal Treatment Directive and the Government is obliged to make appropriate amendments to the Act.

The Department for Communities and Local Government initially indicated that amending regulations would come into force on October 1, 2007 but it is now likely to be April 2008 .

The changes will relate to the definition of harassment as well as changes to the right to claim discrimination during maternity leave. Employees need to be aware of these changes and act now to review all their employment policies and procedures.

  • Neil is a partner of Crombie Wilkinson, York.