Employment Law Changes in the Pipeline?
| Story: | Employment Law Changes in the Pipeline? |
| Date | 07/12/2011 |
Summary: |
Whether the end result is as radical as it appears it might be, Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne’s forthcoming statement will be awaited with great interest to see if the recently suggested changes to employment law and Employment Tribunals in particular are given a timetable for implementation. |
Business Secretary Vince Cable this week gave more detail on the Government’s plans in this area. He said that he wanted the process for dismissing employees to be simpler and quicker and hinted that employees who work for small businesses could lose their right to claim unfair dismissal under plans being considered.
In a speech to the Engineering Employers Federation (EEF), Mr Cable said he wanted to help firms expand without making existing staff feel insecure and confirmed that a consultation process would commence shortly on possible legislative changes, including whether employers with 10 employees or less should be able to dismiss staff without there being a risk of a tribunal claim if they pay compensation.
He also reaffirmed plans to increase the qualifying period for unfair dismissal from the present one year period to two years from April 2012. In addition, there may also be a change to require that all employment tribunal claims are initially submitted for conciliation to ACAS in the first instance before then proceeding to an employment tribunal if no resolution can be found. Further options for a "rapid resolution scheme" of tribunal claims (up to three months) are also to be part of the consultation.
The other main areas highlighted for discussion were a proposal consultation on "protected conversations", if implemented, these would allow employers to have straightforward and honest discussions about job performance with employees without the possibility that the discussions could be used as evidence at a later date as part of an Employment Tribunal.
Also, a reduction in the current maximum consultation period required for planned redundancy programmes from 90 days to 30 days will be reviewed based upon empirical evidence from employers.
Mr Cable confirmed that the Government believes that these reforms will help employers to grow as well as protecting individual employee rights. Unsurprisingly, the initial response of the Trade Unions has been less than enthusiastic. We will provide more precise details of the proposals and the consultation process as soon as they are announced.
In the meantime please call 01455 850000 for any further details at this stage
