Employment Law Bulletin - March 2011

Welcome

A few years ago, the DTI (as it was) announced all major employment law changes would be limited to April and October each year; to make it easier for employers to plan ahead. Next month is a big one for employment law changes; the biggest change being that 5th April 2011 is the last day on which you can serve six months' notice of intention to retire an employee. Try retiring an employee on or after 1st October 2011, if you haven't served the proper notice, and you're going to face problems with unfair dismissal and age discrimination claims. We address what you need to do in the first article in this month's bulletin.

We also deal with ...

Compulsory retirement

It's finally here. Unless you serve a notice giving notice to retire an employee on or before 5th April 2011, you will probably find yourself at the wrong end of an age discrimination and unfair dismissal claim if you retire an employee. Any compulsory retirement will only be permitted after 1st October 2011 if it is "objectively justified", which is unlikely to be easy to achieve (note: some exceptions will remain for dismissals up until October 2012 if certain notice provisions have been followed – always provided the first notice of intention to retire is give on or before the crucial date of 5th April 2011).

If experience to date is anything to go by, tribunals are unlikely to be sympathetic to employers who cling to the old ways and think that they can continue to dismiss somebody just because they have reached a particular age.

Many employers are spending these last weeks reviewing their personnel files and issuing (the minimum) six months' notice of retirement to employees who will have reached 65 by 1st October 2011. Whether or not you do this, you need to think carefully about amending contracts of employment and making sure your company adjusts to the implications of having an older workforce – including more focused appraisals and performance management of all employees, not just those who reach a certain age.

Other changes on 6th April 2011

The other main changes taking place on 6th April 2011 are:

Positive Action: you will be able to positively discriminate in favour of employees or applicants with protected characteristics (women, ethnic minorities, etc) when appointing or promoting; provided the candidates are otherwise equally qualified and you are doing so in order to address an imbalance in the workforce. Statutory Maternity, Paternity and Adoption Pay...