As you may be aware, 6th April 2012 saw the introduction of changes to certain employment protections, which will apply to anyone staring a new job on or after that date.

We asked our legal expert Philip Landau to explain what the new changes will mean for you in practice…

“If you have started new work from 6th April 2012, you are now no longer able to issue a claim in an employment tribunal unless you have a 2 year qualifying period with that employer. This is an increase of 1 year from the pre- April 2012 position, although it does not affect those that started employment prior to 6th April 2012 in which case the 1 year rule still applies.

In practice this means your employer can terminate your employment for, say, a redundancy reason or underperformance issues, without following the minimum expected processes which could otherwise give rise to an unfair dismissal claim.

The minimum processes are as follows:-

Underperformance

• An employer should take informal action where possible to address issues.
• If formal action is required, you should be notified in writing of the performance issues and a meeting should be held. You are entitled to reasonable time to prepare your case, and to be accompanied by a work colleague or (if appropriate) a trade union official.
• After the meeting your employer should inform you in writing if disciplinary action is to be taken and, in most cases for poor performance, you should be given a first written warning. You should be given a specified time to improve, and provided with support and training if necessary. You have the right to appeal the disciplinary action.
• If there is no subsequent improvement in performance, then further disciplinary action can be taken, which is usually another meeting, and a second and final warning. If there is still no improvement, an employer can dismiss you but you have a further right of appeal.

Redundancy

• There must be a genuine redundancy situation. Continue reading “What do the New Employment Law Reforms Mean For You?” »