Government To Make Important Changes In Employment Law

Unfair dismissal qualifying period of service to increase to two years.

Government to consult on charging fees to make Employment Tribunal claims.

From 6 April 2012, the qualifying period of continuous employment for an employee to claim unfair dismissal will be extended from one to two years.

The change will come into effect on 6 April 2012. Transitional arrangements are not yet known. The Government has stated that these changes could save British business nearly £6 million a year by reducing the number of unfair dismissal claims in the Employment Tribunals by 2,000. In 2010, there were 47,900 unfair dismissal claims in total. The Government claims that these changes will increase growth in the economy. It believes that the current rules deter employers from hiring new staff, and that the increase in the qualifying period will therefore create more jobs. Originally, the qualifying period of continuous service for unfair dismissal was six months. In 1980, the new Conservative Government under Margaret Thatcher increased this to one year for businesses with more than 20 employees, and two years for businesses with 20 or fewer employees. The qualifying period was increased to two years for all businesses in 1985. Under Labour, the Government subsequently reduced the qualifying period back to one year in May 1999. This was following an indirect sex discrimination claim and the subsequent decision of the House of Lords in Seymour-Smith no.2 [2000] ICR 244. In that case, it was held that the two-year qualifying period was potentially indirectly discriminatory against women, who tend to have shorter periods of service than male colleagues. The disproportionate effect in that case was judged to be borderline. It remains to be seen whether the increase...