Employment Law Updates 2012

A New Year always heralds a raft of employment law changes or updates and 2012 is no exception.

Our key changes are detailed below:

  1. Qualifying period for unfair dismissal protection will be increased

The qualifying period of employment for an employee to bring a claim for unfair dismissal will increase from 1 year to 2 years as of 6 April 2012.  The Government believes this will allow employers and employees greater time to resolve any difficulties and allow employers more opportunity to develop confidence in its workforce.

  1. Changes to employment tribunal procedure

Fundamental changes to the tribunal procedure are expected to be implemented on 6th April 2012:

  • an employment judge will hear an unfair dismissal claim alone unless otherwise directed;
  • the maximum deposit order required as a condition to proceeding with a claim will be increased from £500 to £1,000;
  • the maximum costs order that a tribunal can award in favour or a legally represented party will increase from £10,000 to £20,000. 
  • witness statements will be taken as ‘read’ unless a tribunal directs otherwise (currently statements are read out by any person giving evidence in tribunal);
  • the maximum compensatory award for unfair dismissal will increase from £68,400 to £72,300. 
  1. Statutory redundancy payments and guarantee payments will increase

The maximum weeks’ pay to calculate statutory redundancy entitlement will increase from £400 to £430 on 1 February 2012. 

The limit on the amount of a guarantee payment payable to an employee in respect of a day will increase from £22.20 to £23.50

  1. Auto-enrolment of  Pensions

From 1 October 2012 those employers with more than 50 employees will have to enroll eligible employees automatically and make compulsory employer contributions.  These must be made into a qualifying workplace pension scheme of the National Employment Savings Trust (NEST).

  1. Maternity/Paternity/Adoption and sick pay increase

The standard rate of maternity/paternity/adoption pay will increase from £128.73 to £135.45 from 1 April 2012.  SSP will increase from £81.60 to £85.95 from 6 April 2012.

There is also talk of further reforms in the tribunal process with the potential introduction of a fee-scale for any Claimant wishing to instigate a tribunal claim and the proposal of ‘protected conversations’ to encourage the resolution of disputes.

There have been calls for a reform in collective redundancy procedures and the TUPE Regulations to alleviate the current burden on employers. 

We will keep you up to date with any further employment law changes that may be announced or proposed over the course of 2012.

If you want any further advice on any of the changes detailed above please contact Elizabeth McGlone in the employment law department on 01908 304 560 or at elizabeth.mcglone@neves-solicitors.co.uk.

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The contents of this article are intended for general information purposes only and shall not be deemed to be, or constitute legal advice. We cannot accept responsibility for any loss as a result of acts or omissions taken in respect of this article.