NEWS & EVENTS

The Government has today confirmed the much previewed changes to employment regulation, drawn up as a result of the recent ‘Red Tape Challenge’ review.

Vince Cable outlined the key changes as part of the Government’s efforts to make the process of hiring and releasing employees easier and more straight forward and to ensure that the Tribunals are only used as a last resort.

Major changes to the dismissal process in which micro-businesses – those who have fewer than 10 employees would be able to use the ‘compensated no-fault dismissal’ system, which was leaked a couple of weeks ago.

In addition, he also confirmed that as from April 2012 the qualification period for an unfair dismissal claim would be doubled from one year to two.

In a change to the Tribunal system, it was confirmed that a consultation will shortly be published on the introduction of Tribunal fees where users would pay fees in order to encourage them to think seriously about the claim they were about to make.  The fee would either take the form of an initial fee to lodge the claim, and another to take it to a hearing or the introduction of a £30,000 threshold so those seeking and award above this level would pay more to bring a claim.

There would also be the compulsion for all employment disputes to go through ACAS before proceeding to a tribunal.

Some if the changes proposed would require primary legislation from the Government and so could be subject to Government timetables, but the set of proposals would herald one of the biggest shake-ups of the employment law structure for some time.

If you would like to see the full 63 page response to the consultation it can be found on the BIS web site.

To discuss how any of the changes may affect your business please contact a member of the Roythornes employment law team.