In addition to the new 5p charge for plastic bags, the Queen`s Speech published on 4 June 2014 identified the following proposals:-
- In response to 3,000 highly-paid NHS executives taking redundancy payments only to get new NHS jobs afterwards, measures will limit excessive redundancy payments across the public sector.
- Legislation will impose higher penalties on employers who fail to pay their staff the minimum wage.
- The legislation will also reduce delays in employment tribunals (although since delays have been reduced considerably by the introduction of tribunal fees, it`s not clear what this refers to).
- Measures will also be brought forward to tackle abuse of zero-hours contracts.
We will keep you updated on what these proposals will mean in practice.