Employment Relations

Important news for HR Professionals

Abolition of Statutory Dispute Resolution Procedures

The DTI have launched a consultation with a view to abolishing the statutory dismissal and grievance procedures, introduced in 2004.

The consultation follows the report from Michael Gibbons on the efficacy of the 2004 Regulations. He commented, "I was struck by the overwhelming consensus that the intentions of the 2004 Dispute Resolution Regulations were sound and there was a genuine attempt to keep them simple. However they have had unintended consequences which have outweighed their benefits"

Views are sought in the consultation paper, on:

• repealing the statutory dismissal and grievance procedures
• simplify tribunal applications forms
• provide free mediation services for employment disputes
• abolish Acas fixed conciliation periods
• strengthen tribunal's powers to award costs, including taking into account the efforts the parties have made to resolve workplace disputes or settle the case

Click here for the Gibbons report, or here for the consultation paper.

Press Release:

HEYDAY TAKES GOVERNMENT TO COURT OVER MANDATORY RETIREMENT AGE...read more

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Employment Law Update

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Failure to respond to tribunal application deadline Dec 05
Failure to respond to tribunal claim costs £49,000

A recent case (NSM Music vs Leefe) has outlined the risk of not entering a defense against a tribunal claim in sufficient time.
Music systems firm NSM Music missed the deadline for lodging its response form after receiving a claim of unfair dismissal from a former employee.
Employers have been warned of the importance of following proper tribunal procedures after a company was ordered to pay almost £49,000 to a claimant after missing the 28-day response deadline

Equality Act

Royal Assent has been given to the Equality Act which brings into being the single Commission for Equality and Human Rights and will act as the umbrella body covering discrimination on the grounds of race, gender, disability, age, religion and belief, and sexual orientation. The new organisation will cover all the UK and will merge the work of the Disability Rights Commission and the Equal Opportunities Commission from October 2007, and the Commission for Racial Equality from 2009.

Holiday Pay

The ECJ has declared that the UK practice of rolling-up holiday pay is unlawful. This has the potential that employers who have rolled-up workers’ holiday pay into their weekly pay packet may find themselves having to pay it twice – although only for the current year (i.e. any claim cannot be backdated for past years). There is a saving grace, which is that ECJ said that where an employer can prove that it specifically added the correct, pro rata holiday pay amount into the pay pack (which may not always be easy to prove), then this extra wage can be set-off against any liability for holiday pay.
Read more at The Court of Justice of the European Communities

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