Employment Law: what’s new in October 2011
New rules on Agency Workers
The Agency Worker Regulations 2010 came into force on 1 October 2011. The regulations will give agency workers the entitlement to the same or no less favourable treatment as comparable employees with respect to basic employment and working conditions, if and when they complete a qualifying period of 12 weeks in a particular job.
Default Retirement Age
As from 1 October 2011, there will no longer be a national default retirement age (DRA) of 65 except with regard to certain employees who have already been served with retirement notices on or before 5 April 2011. On 6 April 2011, the transitional provisions under the Employment Equality (Repeal of Retirement Age Provisions) Regulations 2011 came into force. These Regulations implement the Government’s plan to abolish the DRA as from 1 October 2011 and any associated retirement procedure, including the right to request working beyond retirement.
Increase in the Minimum Wage
An increase in the minimum wage to £6.08 also takes effect from 1 October 2011.
Other important announcements:
On 3 October 2011, the Government confirmed two key employment law changes, with Chancellor George Osborne announcing that the qualifying period for unfair dismissal claims will increase from one year to two and that a fee system will be introduced for employees who bring tribunal claims.
The extension of the qualifying period will come into force on 6 April 2012.
From April 2013, employees must pay £250 to apply for a tribunal, and must pay a further £1,000 if a hearing is granted. The money will be refunded if they are successful, but is forfeited if they lose. The Government has said that "poor claimants" will not have to pay, although there is currently no detail as to how a claimant qualifies as "poor".
The Government maintains that these combined proposals should result in 2,000 fewer tribunals each year. However, it appears unlikely that raising the threshold from one to two years will have its intended effect of reducing the number of employment tribunal claims because employees are increasingly bringing claims linking unfair dismissal with discrimination claims which can be made from day one of employment.