Employment Law Reforms

New Employment Legislation

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In December 2019, the government set out its plans for new employment law legislation in the Queen’s Speech. Much of it will be familiar from the Good Work Plan and includes:

  • Creating a single labour market enforcement agency to protect the rights of vulnerable workers;
  • Requiring employers to pass on all tips and service charges to staff;
  • The right for workers to request a more predictable contract after 26 weeks;
  • Extending redundancy protection so that women who are pregnant or on maternity leave are protected from the point they tell their employer about their pregnancy until 6 months after they return to work;
  • Making flexible working the default position.

These changes could have a significant impact on employer practice and procedure. We will keep you informed if and when these come into law.

Astons Solicitors
January 2nd 2020

Pre-Termination Negotiations: Implementation Date

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It was announced this week that confidential pre-termination negotiations as contained in Section 14 of Vince’s Cables Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013 will be implemented on the 29th July 2013. Follow the link to the commencement order. The new concept of “Confidential pre-termination negotiation” means that employers will now be able to have a “protected conversation” with an employee about terminating their employment under agreed terms within a “Settlement Agreement” (the new name for Compromise agreements as of 29th July) without a prior dispute being necessary.

Such conversations will be “protected conversations” and will not be able to be used by the employee in any potential tribunal proceedings. This is clearly a significant change from the previous rule of “without prejudice” which required a previous dispute to be apparent for the conversation to be protected. It is however worth noting that these new “protected conversations” will be limited to unfair dismissal claims. Automatic unfair and discrimination cases will not be covered under this sanction. A structured format will also need to be followed by the employer if they wish for their conversation to be “protected” and Acas have recently published their Code of Practice on Using Settlement Agreements to encompass the new legislation for pre-termination Negotiations. Should you require further information on the new legislation or if you intend to offer a Settlement Agreement to an employee in the future please do contact Astons for further legal advice and support.

Written Edward Aston
15th July 2013

Update on Employment Law Reforms

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The following commencement dates for reforms under the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013 have been confirmed.

25th June 2013

  • Many of the provisions relating to whistleblowing come into force (in particular, sections 17, 18 and 20). These provisions are significant because if the principal reason for a dismissal is that a worker made a protected disclosure, then the normal two year qualifying period and the cap on the compensatory award do not apply.
  • All hearings in the Employment Appeal Tribunal will be heard by a judge alone unless the judge directs otherwise.
  • The two-year qualifying period for unfair dismissal will not apply where the reason for the dismissal is, or relates to, the employee’s political opinions or affiliation.
  • The date for the annual index-linked increase in the compensatory award will change from February to 6th April, which means that the next increase will be 6th April 2014.
  • The Secretary of State will have the power to reduce the cap on the compensatory award, from the current £74,200 to the lower of a year’s earnings or the national annual median wage (currently approximately £28,000). If the employee’s annual earnings are more than £74,200, then the £74,200 cap will still apply.

29th July 2013

  • Fees will be implemented into the Employment Tribunal and Employment Appeal Tribunal and from this date, subject to the necessary Parliamentary approvals, all Employment Tribunal claims and Employment Appeal Tribunal appeals will be liable under the Fees Order and supporting rules to pay a fee or provide an application for fee remission against that fee under the HM Courts & Tribunals Service remissions scheme.
  • Mr Justice Underhill’s Tribunal procedural reforms come into force and are contained in The Employment Tribunals (Constitution and Rules of Procedure) Regulations 2013. These new procedural rules stem from the major review carried out last year by Mr Justice Underhill of Employment Tribunals.

On or after 25th October 2013

  • The provisions relating to financial penalties on employers come into force in respect of any Tribunal claim submitted on or after 25th October 2013. In circumstances where an Employment Tribunal decides that an employer has breached any worker’s rights and considers that the breach has any “aggravating factor” then it may order the employer to pay a penalty of between £100 and £5,000 to the Secretary of State. If the penalty is paid within 21 days of the Tribunal’s decision being sent to the employer the penalty is halved.

The commencement dates for ACAS Early Conciliation and confidential pre-termination negotiations are still unknown but I will provide a further update on these dates in due course.

Written by Edward Aston 7th June 2013

George Osborne announces plans for a new Contract of Employment

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The Chancellor, George Osborne announced yesterday at the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham his plans for a new type of employment contract. This new contract would be known as an “owner–employee” contract of employment.

Under this new contract an employee would waive their employment rights on unfair dismissal, redundancy, the right to request flexible working and time off for training. The new contract would also restrict maternity rights, requiring employees to provide 16 weeks (rather than the current 8 weeks) notice of a firm date of return to work.

In return for the surrender of these rights the company will grant the employee between £2,000 and £50,000 of shares which will be exempt from capital gains tax.

This new “owner-employee” contract is principally aimed at small companies and those anticipating fast growth but will be available to all companies no matter the size. Companies will have the option to offer this new contract to all new starters but the “owner-employee” contract will be optional for existing employees.

The Government intends for legislation to be in place later this year and that companies will be able to adopt these new contracts into their businesses by April 2013.

This radical move on employment contracts has raised a plethora of questions of how it will work in actual practice. It is also worthwhile to point out that the new contract would not prevent an employee from making any other employment law claims and in particular they would remain protected under discrimination legislation.

There are plans by the Government to consult further on this later in the month and as with all these things the devil will be in the detail.

Written by
Edward Aston
9th October 2012