Thursday, January 26, 2012

Change to Employees’ Rights

At present, employees need to have completed one year’s continuous service in order to qualify for the right to claim “Unfair Dismissal”.

A new two-year qualifying period will apply to employees who commence employment on or after 6 April 2012.

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has said that the aim of the policy is to encourage recruitment, and it does not believe that it is "appropriate or necessary to apply it to those already in work"

Business Secretary Vince Cable said: "Businesses tell us that unfair dismissal rules are a major barrier to taking on more people."

However, John Philpott, chief economic adviser at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, suggested that there is "questionable merit" to the changes. "There is no evidence that UK employment suffered significantly in the 1970s as a result of the introduction in 1975 of a six-month qualifying period for rights against unfair dismissal, or that there was any substantial benefit when the qualifying period was subsequently raised to two years in the 1980s before being lowered to one year in 1999," he commented.

Employees starting work before 6 April 2012 will continue to be able to claim unfair dismissal after one year's service.

The Regulations to extend the unfair dismissal qualifying period from April 2012 will become law after parliamentary debate, and they are expected to be published soon.

Unions have criticised the change, saying that it favours unscrupulous bosses, while some legal commentators have suggested that it will further encourage employees to bring discrimination claims, which do not require any qualifying period.

Back