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Employment Act 2002

Employment Act 2002

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The Act sets out a procedure and timetable which employers must follow in responding to such an application, which will be fleshed out by regulations. The employer must arrange a meeting, within 28 days of receiving an application, to discuss the employee’s request, at which the employee may be accompanied by a representative. The employee must be informed of the employer’s decision within 14 days, and the employee has a further 14 days to appeal. The Employment Act 2002 contained new rules on maternity, paternity and adoption leave and pay, and changes to the tribunal system in the United Kingdom. The Act introduces a new statutory right to paid time off work for trade union 'learning representatives', where the union is recognised by the employer, to carry out a range of duties, including advising union members about learning or training matters. ACAS is currently consulting on revisions to its code of practice on time off for union duties to take account of the new rights. This aspect of the Act is not expected to take effect before 2003. A future EIRO feature will examine the significance of the new rights for union learning representatives in more detail. Equal pay questionnaires

Where an employer fails to follow the statutory dismissal and disciplinary procedures a dismissal will be automatically unfair. The Act also specifies that an employer’s failure to follow a procedure other than the statutory procedure will not by itself make a dismissal unfair, provided the employer can show that following the appropriate procedure would have made no difference to the decision to dismiss.

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Consultation on draft regulations containing detailed provisions on the operation of the new right closed on 10 October 2002. The regulations are due to take effect from April 2003. Employment tribunal reform an increase in the period of maternity leave to six months’ paid maternity leave followed by up to six months’ unpaid leave; The Act also provides the basis for amending employment tribunal rules to introduce a fixed period for conciliation by the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS), and to enable a tougher approach to the handling of weak cases. The right will be available to all employees, who are parents or have responsibility for a child aged under 6, or disabled children aged under 18, and who have 26 weeks’ continuous service with the same employer. Draft Regulations state that the right will extend to those who are guardians or foster carers, or their spouse or partner. The request must be within 14 days of the 6th or 18th birthday.

The Act also gives parents of children under six years of age (or disabled children up to the age of 18) the right to request flexible working patterns for childcare purposes, and places a duty on employers to give proper consideration to the request ( UK0112105N). The aim is to facilitate dialogue between working parents and their employers about working patterns that meet parents’ childcare responsibilities as well as employers’ business needs. Such a request may involve: the use of successive fixed-term contracts will be limited to four years, unless the use of further fixed-term contracts is justified on objective grounds. The paternity leave provisions will allow fathers to take up to 2 weeks’ paid paternity leave. It must be taken within a period of 56 days beginning with the date of the birth or the child being placed for adoption. Paternity and adoption leave will only be available to employees, who have continuous service with the same employer for at least 26 weeks by the 15th week before the child is expected to be born, or, by the week in which an agreed match for adoption is made. The wording of the draft Regulations is such that the parental and adoption leave provisions will extend to co-habiting and same sex partners. To what extent the greater use of workplace procedures will reduce the volume of tribunal applications remains to be seen. The government’s estimate that the reduction will be between 30,000 and 40,000 applications per year has been met with some scepticism, particularly from Labour Party peers during the House of Lords’ debates on the new legislation. In any event, the new employee rights introduced by the Act will themselves add to tribunal workloads, with the right to seek flexible working arrangements perhaps the most likely provision to generate a significant number of claims. More fundamentally, concerns have been expressed that the 'three-stage' statutory minimum procedures are too 'minimalist' to offer effective protection to employees. In particular, they do not meet the accepted standards set out in the current ACAS Code of Practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures.

The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) and the Trades Union Congress (TUC) have both given mixed reactions to the provisions of the Employment Act. a meeting between the employer and the employee to discuss the matter, at which the employee has the right to be accompanied ( UK0010195F), and after which the employee must be informed of the employer’s decision; and Employers must then arrange a meeting within 4 weeks of the request to consider and discuss the request with the employee. Every employer must write to the employee within 2 weeks of that meeting with a decision, giving reasons if the application is objected. The employee can appeal within 2 weeks of the employer’s decision and the appeal must be heard within 2 weeks. changes to other aspects of the employee’s terms and conditions as specified in regulations by the secretary of state. A modified, two-stage dismissal and disciplinary procedure will apply in cases of gross misconduct. Similarly, a modified, two-stage written procedure will apply to grievances on the part of former employees.

The Act sets out a similar three-stage grievance procedure, starting with a written statement of the employee’s grievance.

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The Act sets out a statutory dismissal and disciplinary procedure and a statutory grievance procedure, each involving three stages. The standard dismissal and disciplinary procedure involves:

The dispute resolution sections of the Act are expected to be implemented in late 2003. Equal treatment of fixed-term employees In addition to the legislative measures contained in the Act, the government set up an Employment Tribunal System Taskforce to look at ways of making the tribunal system more efficient and cost effective ( UK0111105N). This issued its report in July 2002. Its main recommendations include the establishment of a high-level coordinating body to ensure greater coherence within the employment tribunal system and the promotion of best practice, and a greater emphasis on the prevention of disputes. Ministers have said that they will respond to the Taskforce’s recommendations in the autumn. Workplace dispute resolution increases in the standard rate of statutory maternity pay (SMP) and maternity allowance to the lesser of GBP 100 per week or 90% of the employee’s average weekly earnings; The Act expands the legal requirements on employers to issue employees with a written statement of their main terms and conditions. Among other things, it removes the current 20-employee threshold that applies to the provision of information on disciplinary and grievance procedures. This means that all employers of whatever size will have to provide information on the statutory minimum disciplinary and dismissal procedures in the written statement.fixed-term employees should not be treated less favourably than comparable permanent employees on the grounds they are fixed-term employees, unless this is objectively justified; and Having completed its passage through Parliament, the Employment Bill ( UK0112104N) received royal assent on 8 July 2002. The Employment Act 2002 is a major piece of legislation. Its key themes are the enhancement of statutory rights designed to help parents balance work and family commitments, and the reform of employment tribunal procedures and workplace dispute resolution mechanisms in response to the rising number and cost of employment tribunal claims in recent years ( UK0108142N). It also includes provisions on a range of other issues, including equal treatment for fixed-term employees and time off for trade union learning representatives. The Act, and several sets of associated regulations, will be implemented in a number of phases over the coming year. This new right to request flexible working is likely to be a matter which becomes more prominent and employers will need to start planning now as to how they will deal with such requests.



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