News

It is going to be a busy time for employment law changes and the Government have now published an updated timetable for the provisions of the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2012 which makes various reforms to employment law.  A summary of the key areas that may affect you (by start date) has been provided below:

25 June 2013

There will be NO qualifying period for unfair dismissal where it relates to employee's political opinion/affiliation.  Whistle blowing changes - need for disclosure to be in the 'public interest', reducing compensation where disclosure not made in good faith, and extending the meaning of  'worker'.

Summer 2013

The introduction of settlement agreements (ACAS has also provided a code of practice)

1 October 2013

Removal of the third-party harrassment provisions from the Equality Act 2010

6 April 2014

All claims to tribunals will have to go via the ACAS early conciliation scheme

The discrimination questionaires provisions in the Equality Act 2010 will be replealed

Start date yet to be determined...

Financial penalties for employers.  This will allow the Government to 'fine' employers and any payments will go to the Government (not the employee).

These are not the only changes (these summarise some key changes within the cover of the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013).  Other changes coming up include:

Changes to the TUPE including:

The removal of the 'Change of Service Provider' provision (which will basically put us back to the 2005 position in deciding if there is a TUPE transfer).
Changes to the requirements to provide employee information.

Fees for Tribunals

As detailed in our previous update, fees for making a claim to a tribunal will be introduced on 29th July.

Collective Consultation re Redundancies

The time scales required for collective consultation have been reduced so if there are more than 100 redundancies a minimum of 45 days consultation must take place.  More that 20 redundancies will require a minimum of 30 days consultation.  In addition the recent 'Woolworths' ruling makes clear that when considering how many redundancies this must now be looked at across the Company not just at individual establishments (although this could be further appealed).

We will be reportting on the above in more detail as more details are provided.