Don't Overlook The Employment Act 2008 Changes

It would be wrong to assume that the Employment Act 2008 is

confined to the abolition of the Statutory Dispute Resolution

Procedures. Whilst this is the most publicised change being

introduced by the Act we must not overlook the fact that it makes a

number of other important changes, including:

changes to the National Minimum Wage (NMW);

Employment Agencies' enforcement regimes; and

a trade unions' ability to expel members.

NMW changes

The Act will improve the enforcement framework for the NMW by

introducing a new formula for calculating arrears

for employees who have been paid below the

NMW. The current enforcement and penalty notices for

failure to pay the NMW will be replaced with a single

"notice of underpayment" thus simplifying the

regime. Existing offences under the NMW Act

1998 will now be triable either way in a Crown

Court or Magistrates' Court. Most significantly of all

however is that tribunals will be given the power to award

compensation to reflect the financial loss suffered as a

result of an unlawful deduction from wages.

Trade Union Act changes

Further changes introduced by the Act will be an amendment to

the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 which

will empower unions to bar people joining on the

basis of their membership of political parties. This follows

the decision in ASLEF UK where the European Court of Human Rights

found that the unions' right to freedom of association

had been infringed when a tribunal ruled that it

could not expel one of its members because of

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