Following on from our article last month ( click here), on 23 November 2011, Business Secretary Vince Cable set out the government's intentions with regard to employment law reforms, with a particular focus on attempting to make it easier to settle employment disputes. He also gave further information about plans to introduce fees for bringing employment claims, and set out plans for a new consultation. These changes are important and it would be very remiss of you not to ... (read more)
Cable's speech set out the government's plans and intentions in a number of areas, as follows:
- Confirming that the unfair dismissal qualifying period would be doubled to two years
- Extending the right to request flexible working to everyone
- Amending the parental leave regulations to reflect the greater involvement of fathers in childcare
- Introducing different fees for different types of tribunal claims, possibly with a higher fee for claims worth more than £30,000 (subject to consultation)
- Creating a "rapid resolution scheme" as a quicker and cheaper alternative to Tribunal for simple matters such as holiday pay disputes
- Requiring complaints to be submitted to Acas for pre-claim conciliation before a tribunal claim can be issued
- Introducing "protected conversations" to allow employers to raise workplace issues in conversations which cannot be used in evidence
- Improving CRB checks by making them instantly accessible online
- Reviewing the Agency Workers Regulations 2010 in 18 months' time and simplifying the rules on employment businesses and agencies
- Changing whistle-blowing law to exclude complaints about breaches of the employment contract
- The government will be consulting on a number of other ideas, including:
- The possibility of reducing collective redundancy consultation periods from 90 days to a shorter period
- Simplifying TUPE
- "Radically slimming down" dismissal procedures, potentially by changing the Acas Code of Practice
The most controversial new proposal to be consulted on is introducing "compensated no-fault dismissals" for micro-businesses - those with 10 or fewer employees. While small companies will welcome this, Cable himself is opposed, and commentators have pointed out that it will affect women, who are more likely to work in small business, disproportionately.
No doubt there will be further developments and we will of course keep you updated as and when these arise. As always in the world of employment law, we live in interesting times ... will this once again be a curse?!