GLAA publish new Licensing Standards including ‘Critical’ holiday pay standard

• New licensing standards effective 1 October 2018

• GLAA clamp down on licence holders administering holiday pay incorrectly

• Failure to comply with the holiday pay standard will lead to revocation of a GLAA licence

• Licence holders to notify GLAA of tribunal or Government decisions

The Gangmasters & Labour Abuse Authority (“GLAA”) have published brief 58 which sets out the GLAA’s new Licensing Standards (“the Standards”) effective from 1 October 2018. The Standards set out the conditions to be complied with in order to be granted, and keep a GLAA licence.

The new Standards are very similar to the Licensing Standards published in May 2012. GLAA inspections from 1 October 2018 will be against the new Standards. Some of the key changes are;

The requirements for holiday pay have all been bought together under a new Licensing Standard 2.5 which states;

• A licence holder must maintain records to show that a worker receives paid annual leave to which they legally entitled
• A worker must be paid any holiday pay to which they are legally entitled during the course of their engagement
• Where a worker’s engagement is terminated during the course of a leave year a licence holder must give them payment in lieu of any accrued and unused holiday entitled
• A license holder must not illegally prevent a worker taking annual leave

Non-compliance with Standard 2.5, as a standard designated as ‘critical’, will contribute a maximum of 30 points to a licensing standard compliance score, therefore failure against this standard will lead to a GLAA licence being revoked without immediate effect.

• Licensing Standard 7.3 will be updated and will remove some of the recordkeeping requirements in order to align GLAA requirements with the Employment Agencies Standards Inspectorate (“EASI”)
• All requirements regarding work finding fees will be bought together under Licensing Standard 7.1
• Licensing Standard 1.4 will now require licence holders to notify the GLAA if they receive an alternative civil sanction. This will include findings from a tribunal or another Government department. Licence holders will also be required to notify the GLAA should the business go into liquidation

Aspire Comment

There is currently no state body instructed to enforce holiday pay, therefore, there is little proactive activity relating to holiday pay compliance, other than worker-led Tribunal claims or Trade Union action, however, the new Standards outline and reinforce the GLAA’s requirements for licence holders in relation to holiday pay. This demonstrates that the GLAA take all aspects of worker exploitation seriously, including non-payment of money owed to workers, and is working to tackle mistreatment of workers in all areas. This could potentially be the start of a nationwide crackdown on the incorrect administration of holiday pay to workers across all sectors on the basis that the Taylor review consultations, published earlier this year, sought evidence in relation to targeting enforcement efforts in relation to holiday pay.

If you are concerned about any of your obligations as an employer with a GLAA license and meeting the Standard, or if you think you have failed to comply with any of the regulations that the GLAA now have powers to investigate across all labour markets, please get in touch with Aspire to discuss how we can help.