Up close and personnel 

Our employment laws are under the spotlight, the Coalition Government having announced numerous proposals for reform. The chart below sets out the key dates and stages for the reforms. Please note the following highlights:

• Unfair dismissal. The unfair dismissal qualifying period increased from one year to two years on 6 April 2012.
   
• Unfair dismissal compensation. The Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill (the ERRB) contains a power for the Secretary of State to vary the limit on the compensatory award in unfair dismissal claims. The following limits have been proposed: a specified amount that would be between one and three times “median annual full-time earnings”, a specified number of weeks' pay (which must not be less than 52), or the lower of the above two amounts. In its consultation paper “Ending the Employment Relationship” the Government seeks views on the proposed level of the cap and how it should be calculated. The consultation closes on 23 November 2012.
   
• Compensated no fault dismissal. The Government response to “Dealing with Dismissal” and “Compensated No Fault Dismissal for Micro Businesses” confirms that the proposal for no-fault dismissal will not be taken forward.
   
• Protected conversations. The ERRB contains a clause which means that offers of settlement will not be admissible as evidence in unfair dismissal cases. However, the Government consultation on “Ending the Employment Relationship” makes it clear that the content of discussions on a broader range of management and workforce planning issues, such as retirement, will not be similarly protected.
   
• Pre-claim conciliation. The ERRB provides for a period of mandatory ACAS conciliation before a claim can be commenced at the Employment Tribunal.
   
• TUPE. Last winter, the Government held a call for evidence in relation to proposals to simplify TUPE (in particular, the provisions relating to service provision changes) to enable “necessary business restructuring”. The Government has published its response and is now in a period of “policy design” in which it will consider a number of ideas.
   
• Rapid resolution of simple claims. The ERRB provides for rapid resolution of simple claims by legal officers. Details will be dealt with in Regulations but such claims are likely to include claims for holiday pay and unlawful deductions from wages.
   
• Modernisation of the tribunal system. Increases in the upper limit on deposit orders to £1,000 and costs orders to £20,000; the removal of state funded witness expenses and other procedural changes came into force on 6 April 2012.
   
• Collective redundancies. The Government has consulted on proposed changes to collective consultation which would reduce the 90 days minimum period for consultation on redundancies of more than 100 people to 30 or 45 days. The consultation closed on 19 September 2012.
   
• Fees for tribunal claims. Claimants will have to pay a fee to bring a claim in the Employment Tribunal and a further fee if the claim proceeds to a hearing. There will be two levels of fees:
  • Level one claims will be straightforward claims (e.g. unauthorised deductions from wages and redundancy payments) for which the fees will be £160 when the claim is issued and a hearing fee of £250.
     
  • Level two claims will be more complex issues (e.g. unfair dismissal, discrimination and equal pay) where the fees will be £230 when the claim is issued and a hearing fee of £950.
     
  Multiple claimants will also be charged a fee: claims involving between two and ten claimants will be charged twice the fee for a single claim, claims involving 11-200 claimants will be charged four times the single fee; claims involving over 200 claimants will be charged six times the single fee.
  
  At the EAT there will be an appeal fee of £400 and a hearing fee of £1,200.
  
  It is expected that these fees will be introduced from 2013 onwards.
   
• 
  Financial penalty. The ERRB provides for a penalty to be levied at the Tribunal’s discretion where there is a breach of a worker’s rights by the employer which has aggravating features. The penalty will be half of the total award made by the Tribunal, with a minimum threshold of £100 and a maximum ceiling of £5,000 and a 50% discount applied if paid within 21 days. The penalty will be paid to the Secretary of State.
   
• Compromise Agreements. The ERRB renames Compromise Agreements as Settlement Agreements. In its “Ending the Employment Relationship” consultation paper, the Government has published a number of proposals to increase the use of settlement agreements. These include a statutory ACAS code on settlement agreements, suggested model letters and a suggested model settlement agreement. Clarification is still awaited as to whether the requirement that the employee must seek legal advice before signing such an agreement will be affected. The consultation closes on 23 November 2012.
   
• Whistleblowing. The ERRB contains a clause which states that whistleblowing claims must be made in “the public interest”. The aim of this clause is to prevent those who blow the whistle about breaches of their own employment contract from being protected by whistleblowing legislation.
   
• Family leave. In the Queen’s Speech, the Government announced that its proposal to allow shared parental leave will form part of the Children and Families Bill which is expected to be introduced in the autumn of 2012.
   
• CRB checks. The Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 received Royal Assent on 1 May 2012. In December 2012 the CRB and ISA will merge into one body: the Disclosure and Barring Service. From 2013, the Government intends to launch a new update service which will enable individuals to apply for a CRB check which will then be updated and available for organisations to check.
   
• National Minimum Wage. A set of draft Regulations which consolidate 17 Regulations concerning the national minimum wage into one set of regulations is expected to be published by March 2013.

Please click HERE for the chart showing the key dates and stages for the reform. We hope you find this summary useful. If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact linda.farrell@bristows.com or the employment lawyer with whom you usually deal.