Major Employment Law Shake-up Unveiled
The UK Government has announced wide-ranging plans for what it claims to be "the most radical reform to the employment law system for decades". The proposals were set out by the Secretary of State for Business, Dr Vince Cable, in a speech to the EEF manufacturers' organization. Some of the measures had been previously floated but others were novel, including:
- amending the UK's whistleblowing legislation so that complaints by employees about a breach of their own employment contract will no longer constitute a protected disclosure;
- seeking views on introducing compensated no-fault dismissals for "micro employers" with fewer than ten employees;
- simplifying and "slimming down" the processes required to carry out a fair dismissal, including potentially working with the conciliation service Acas to change their Code of Practice on Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures;
- consolidating the myriad regulations relating to the national minimum wage; and
- streamlining the current regulatory regime for the recruitment sector.
Government Signals New Employment Law Reforms
The UK's Coalition Government has announced that it will be extending its review of employment law to cover three new areas. This forms part of a broader strategy to simplify legislation, improve efficiency and reduce business red tape. The latest announcement follows a recent major consultation on proposals to reform employment tribunal and resolution of workplace disputes, including extending the qualifying period for claiming unfair dismissal from one year to two years.
Huge Increase in Employment Tribunal Claims
The latest annual statistics (PDF) published by the UK's Tribunals Service have revealed a very significant increase in claims received by Employment Tribunals, which are now at their highest ever level. The number of claims in 2009-10 rose to 236,100, representing a 56% increase on the number of claims lodged in 2008-9. However, the report suggests that this is largely attributable to a rise in the number of multiple claims (i.e. arising out of the same or similar circumstances).
Consultations Before Decision by Parent Company
A consultation of collective redundancy with works council must be held before a decision is taken, even if the decision is not taken by the employer, but by the group. This rule follows from Art . 2 Sec. 4 of the Directive on collective redundancies. It has been recently referred to by the European Court of Justice in the Akavan v. Fujitsu Siemens
New Rules Concerning Employee Redeployment in the Event of Lay-offs
The French parliament recently approved a law which aims at guaranteeing fair conditions of remuneration to employees concerned by a lay-off procedure.
Since 1995, the French Supreme Court has imposed on employers a general obligation to offer redeployment before making any employee redundant. This obligation was incorporated into the French Labour Code in 2002.
The French Supreme Court ("Cour de cassation") ruled that the employer has to search for and propose any vacant position within the same Group, among all the entities whose activities, organization and localization permit the employees to be made redundant to switch.
Continue Reading...Supreme Court's New Counting Unit Criteria for Layoffs
In a ruling that sets case law in Spain, the Supreme Court ruled that counting unit criteria to undergo a collective dismissal procedure under the Workers' Statute Act is the total number of employees in the workforce instead of only those employees located in the affected location.
The decision is extraordinarily useful and sheds light on the statutory dilemma that companies have faced: while European Directive 98/59 sets forth the working place as a reference unit of counting, Section 51.1 of Spain's Workers' Statute Act provides that all employees in a company be counted.
Continue Reading...Restrictions on Temporary Work Discontinued
As of 24 January 2010 employers who conducted collective redundancies will not be restricted in the use of temporary work. However, it is still not allowed to use temporary work in the positions from which employees were dismissed for economic reasons. Also the company will be able to use a temporary worker for up to 18 months instead of 12 months.
Proposed Amendment to Lay-Off Provisions of Employment Standards Act, 2000
On December 10, 2009, Bill 239,
An Act to amend the Employment Standards Act, 2000 with respect to lay-offs (pdf) was introduced. If passed, the Bill would change the manner in which weeks without work are counted during a lay-off. Under the Employment Standards Act, 2000, employees are deemed to have been terminated if the length of their lay-off exceeds a certain length in a given time period. Currently, weeks that an employee is locked-out by his or her employer are excluded from that calculation. Bill 239 would amend the Act so that the period of time that an employee is not working due to a lock-out is no longer excluded.
Modification of the Procedure for Collective Dismissals
On 19 June 2009, a Royal Decree modifying the procedure that should be followed in the event of a collective dismissal was published in the Belgian Official Gazette, From now on, in the event of a collective dismissal, the employer must also communicate the announcement of the envisaged collective dismissal and the announcement of the decision to effect such collective dismissal to the federal government.
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