Are your workers paid fairly and appropriately for their contribution? We can support you in establishing and communicating practical policies, processes, systems and data capture which enable you to ‘get it right’ in real time.

We can also advise you if you have a review into your compliance with fair pay, whether that comes from an official enforcement body such as HM Revenue & Customs or via a direct challenge from your workforce.

Our teams are made up of experienced advisers that can navigate reviews of this kind in a strategic, practical and pragmatic way, supported by SME’s, including employment lawyers, allowing you to focus on your other priorities. We bring our experience of working directly with the regulators and enforcement bodies to all aspects of a review.

We know that Governments are continuously developing new regulations and increasing connected enforcement strategies and penalty regimes, particularly in the UK through the planned establishment of a ‘Single Enforcement Body’ which is due to be created following the recommendations arising from the Good Work Plan. The Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (“BEIS”) released guidance for calculating holiday pay for workers without fixed hours or pay in 2018, with the most recent iteration of this guidance released in July 2020.

It is also known that the Government estimate underpayments of holiday pay of over £3 billion annually across the UK and the headlines which have been naming and shaming employers found to be underpaying employees through NMW breaches are also widely reported on. The Government’s view is that workers are not receiving all rights they are entitled to and in many cases this could lead to underpayment of pay. The Government are planning to tackle this ‘fair pay’ non-compliance through more effective enforcement activity.

We have significant experience of advising clients across a broad range of fair pay matters, please see below for more information on these matters:

• National Minimum Wage (“NMW”);
• Holiday Pay and Holiday entitlement;
• Equal Pay;
• Gender and ethnicity pay gap reporting, Disability reporting and broader Diversity and Inclusion advisory services;
• CEO ratios;
• Automatic enrolment; and
• Other worker rights matters such as contractor status

The first step to effectively evolving your approach is by defining your measurable objectives and developing a workforce strategy that helps you deliver these. We can support you in planning and executing this with our experienced consultants who bring insight and challenge, but also in communicating your initiatives and impact with our communication specialists.

There has been increased focus on pay and progression for specific cross-sections of workers, be that through the lens of ethnicity, gender and/or all other aspects of diversity. Ensuring your workforce strategies, including fair pay, delivers against your diversity ambitions is more important now than ever.

We can assist you in gaining maximum insight from your workforce data, supporting your strategy as it continues to evolve and ensuring you can measure your progress accordingly against any agreed metrics. Our communication specialists will transform your data and strategy into a compelling narrative that engages your audience and delivers tangible results.

Understand – facilitating a workshop with key stakeholders to explain the rules and risks relating to the different areas of Fair Pay to relevant personnel. This can be a general understanding or a workshop covering a specific area of Fair Pay in more detail.

Identify – Undertaking a review of contracts, policies, pay elements, systems and processes to identify any areas of Fair Pay risk.

Calculate – Assessing and calculating any potential historical cost impact and future potential cost of being compliant with the different Fair Pay areas.

Systems and processes – Updating systems, processes and policies to be robust and improve compliance with the different areas of Fair Pay.

Support with worker challenges or government reviews – Worker challenges or government enquiries / reviews, such as HMRC NMW reviews, can be time consuming for employers and key personnel. We can help manage these.

Ongoing compliance – Undertaking periodic reviews to assess whether systems are working appropriately and general compliance with the different areas of Fair Pay.

Legal advice – Many of the areas may require legal advice, some of which could potentially be subject to legal professional privilege in certain circumstances.