Deep in the Arctic Circle, Mr and Mrs Clause closely watch BBC Parliament. Whilst they are well accustomed to the “ping pong” of the 9.6 million table tennis tables they produce each year, this ping pong between the House of Commons and House of Lords is far less familiar.
As a non-profit which heavily relies on seasonal, zero-hour contract workers, the Employment Rights Act 2025 will significantly impact their business. How can they cope with demand pressures and staff when wish lists usually only come in with a few weeks’ notice? They are also worried about the new Fair Work Agency scrutinising their holiday pay practices. Considering their workshop is in a space-time continuum in which days, hours and weeks all blend together with eggnog magic, it’s unclear whether they can pay rolled up holiday pay or not to their part year and flexible hour workers. Santa’s HR team will need a box of paracetamol once this year is done.
Whether the Employment Rights Act 2025 even applies to them at all is another headache. Recent case law has indicated potential claimants may be able rely on British employment law, even if their connection to Britain doesn’t seem obvious. Would the fact the elves accompany Santa on regular trips to UK garden centres to meet his young clients bring them under the protection of British statutes? It’s an issue Santa’s in-house legal team need to grapple with, having had very little interaction with the UK’s Employment Tribunal system (save to deliver some gifts of course).
One issue they will need to consider soon is the Pay Transparency Directive, considering most of their workforce are in Lapland, Finland (or so the Finnish tourist board will have you believe). Do Mr and Mrs Clause do work of equal value, and therefore need to be paid the same? Is Mr Clause popping up and down chimneys the same as Mrs Clause baking cookies and responding to letters? Even worse, how do you value their remuneration properly; “goodwill from all good people” doesn’t conform to a standard accounting standard they can readily rely on.
Of course, GDPR continues to keep their data privacy team busy, but now they have the added layer of new AI legislation to contend with. Ms Clause’s drive for efficiency means reading and responding to children’s letters using an automated tool, CookieGPT 25.0, but processing such large quantities of children’s personal data needs proper guardrails and protections in place. Meanwhile giving coal to naughty children needs some rethinking if they want to reach their ESG goal of ‘net zero’ by 2030.
Separately, such a close-knit, remote workplace increases the need for clear harassment training and reporting mechanisms. That’s why Santa is also dusting down his harassment policies and ensuring he is staying compliant with the need to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace. Over a year on from this new obligation kicking in, he knows that his action plan needs to remain live and updated to avoid a potential uplift on any tribunal awards.
Employing workers from multiple countries (and mythical realms) means Santa has also had to get his head around changes in visas and work authorizations around the world. Getting stopped at the border on the busiest night of the year is snow joke.
As always, here at Littler United Kingdom we are full of festive cheer, thinking of such Christmas compliance problems and how we may help the merry man in red solve them. We hope wrapped under the Christmas tree this year will be an updated new copy of the Employment Rights Act 2025. How wonderful.
