Employment Law Changes April 2012

The main change made this month was to increase the qualifying period for employees to claim unfair dismissal from one year to two years.

This only applies to new employees who started work on or after 6 April, which means that it is fairly straightforward - anyone already employed before then will retain the one-year qualifying period. Employers will need to check an employee's start date carefully before dismissing him or her to establish whether they have the right to bring a claim or not.

The change in the period of qualifying service also applies to the right to a written statement for the reasons for dismissal.

The Government has estimated that the number of claims will drop by around 2,000 per year, saving employers around £4.7 million per year. This change was made to encourage employers to take on new staff, as research has shown that the fear of employment tribunal claims puts employers off recruiting.

However, it is possible that employees with less than two years' service will still be able to claim that they were automatically unfairly dismissed or will claim whistle blowing or discrimination. In the last two scenarios the level of compensation is unlimited.

In addition, a number of changes have been made to employment tribunal practice and procedure. For example:

• employment judges will be able to sit alone to decide unfair dismissal cases
• tribunal judges can make a deposit order where they decide that a claim has little reasonable prospect of success
• employment judges can also award costs against a party where that party has applied for a hearing to be postponed or a party or his representative has acted vexatiously, abusively, disruptively or unreasonably or the bringing or conducting of the proceedings was misconceived; and
• changes have also been made to the rules regarding witnesses.

Other changes were made to compromise agreements (now known as settlement agreements), apprenticeship agreements, family and sickness pay.

Published: April 2012

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