FEBRUARY 2006: DTI ANNOUNCES DATES FOR CHANGES TO EMPLOYMENT LAW
The DTI has published a timetable of changes to Employment Legislation coming into force in April and October of this year. These changes may be subject to revision and the government will publish a further timetable in July 2006.
FULL ARTICLE ON DTI EMPLOYMENT LAW CHANGESJANUARY 2006: INCREASES IN TRIBUNAL AWARDS FROM FEBRUARY 2006
The annual increase in limits on tribunal awards take effect on 1 February 2006. The maximum compensatory award for unfair dismissal increased to £58,400 and the limit on a week's pay increased to £290. This brings the total potential liability for a normal unfair dismissal claim to £67,100
FULL ARTICLE ON TRIBUNAL AWARD LIMITSJANUARY 2006: WHAT IS A GRIEVANCE LETTER?
Employment legislation now says that employees must first send a formal grievance letter to their employer before they are allowed to bring certain types of tribunal claims.
There have been some recent decisions from the Employment Appeal Tribunal to illustrate what is likely to constitute a formal grievance letter under the Employment Act 2002.
In Shergold v Fieldway Medical Centre it was decided that:
In Aspland v Mark Warner Ltd the Employment Appeal Tribunal decided that a solicitor's letter before action amounts to the raising of a grievance. There is nothing in the Employment Act 2002 that requires an employee to write the grievance themselves, and a grievance sent by the employee's solicitor to the employer or its solicitor is sufficient, including a letter before action which does not expressly refer to invoking the internal grievance procedure.
APRIL 2005: AGE DISCRIMINATION, AN AGE OLD PROBLEM
...Employers should now start to prepare themselves for the new age discrimination legislation which will come into force on 1 October 2006. In particular, employers should be checking their policies and contracts of employment to ensure that they do not discriminate on the basis of an employee's age in terms of recruitment,service benefits and retirement. Proposals recently published by the DTI, indicate that there will be a default retirement age of 65 years, with employees having the right to request to work beyond 65. The right to request to work beyond 65 will be the same procedure utilised when there is a request for flexible working....
FULL ARTICLE ON AGE DISCRIMINATION
NOVEMBER 2004: DISCIPLINARY AND GRIEVANCE PROCEDURES
...Whatever the nature or size of your business, employers need to familiarise themselves with the specific disciplinary and grievance procedures that they will need to apply to all employees in the workplace, regardless of an employee's length of service or seniority, from 1 October 2004. This means that those companies who do not already have disciplinary and grievance procedures for employees because they are currently exempt, will need to have them in place and follow them, to comply with the minimum standards contained within the Employment Act 2002...
FULL ARTICLE ON DISCIPLINARY AND GRIEVANCE PROCEDURES
OCTOBER 2004: DISABILITY DISCRIMINATION LAW TO APPLY TO ALL BUSINESSES
...Small employers will no longer be exempt from the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 ("the Act"). From 1 October 2004, the Act will apply to all employers, even those with less than 15 employees. In order to comply with the Act, employers will need to make sure that they do not treat disabled job applicants and employees less favourably for a reason related to their disability. For employees, this applies to promotion, dismissal and selection for redundancy. A disabled person is someone who has a "physical or mental impairment that has a substantial and long term adverse effect on the person's ability to carry out normal day to day activities"...
READ THE FULL ARTICLE ON DISABILITY DISCRIMINATION