As indicated in our Gender Pay Gap Countdown, new gender pay gap guidance has been published by the Government Equalities Office (GEO).  Eight ways to understand your gender pay gap sets out eight key questions for employers to consider which should assist them in identifying potential causes of their gender pay gap.  Four steps to developing a gender pay gap action plan is based on what employers, who have successfully developed and implemented an effective action plan, have fed back to the GEO about that process.   

Mental Health First Aid England has produced a helpful guide for employers on implementing mental health first aiders.  The guide takes employers through key considerations to help embed positive, long term cultural and behavioural changes in approach to wellbeing.  

The Home Office has produced a Code of practice on preventing illegal working which specifies the factors to be considered in determining the amount of civil penalty for employing an illegal worker.  The Code is to be read alongside previously published guidance including the recently updated Employer's Guide to Right Work Checks. 

Treatment of "sleep-in" shifts for minimum wage purposes is a confusing area.  HMRC have just put a new presentation on You Tube explaining all you need to know.  The presentation outlines different scenarios to help determine if the minimum wage is applicable to some or all hours worked during the sleep-in shift.  

And finally, it has been reported that the Government plans to publish a new employment bill before the next Brexit vote.  The bill is allegedly aimed at winning over the support of Labour MPs and could include a "regression lock" to ensure minimum levels of worker protections.