Employment Law Act 2008
Some new employment law legislation is one step closer to implementation as it has now received Royal Assent. The Employment Act 2008 should come into force on 6th April 2009 and put an end to procedures that have caused employers and lawyers problems since they were implemented in 2004.
The statutory grievance and disciplinary procedures meant that if an employer failed to correctly follow a grievance or disciplinary procedure, an employee was deemed to have been automatically unfairly dismissed, leading to a certain compensation claim. It did not matter whether the employee would have been dismissed even if the correct procedure had been followed. The failure to follow the process was sufficient in itself to lead to an award of unfair dismissal by a tribunal and an award of compensation.
When the Employment Act 2008 finally comes into place in 2009 the above statutory grievance and disciplinary procedures will be repealed. Therefore, failure to follow a grievance or disciplinary procedure will no longer be enough to claim unfair dismissal. The Employment Law Tribunal will now look to see whether the employer followed the ACAS Code Of Practice when they were terminating the employee's position. Failure to follow the code of practice will only lead to an increase in any compensation finally awarded against the employer (up to 25%). However, the employer will at least be able to argue now that the employee would have been dismissed even if the correct procedure had been followed, and if this argument is accepted the employee can have their claim reduced by as much as 100% (ie receiving no compensation whatsoever).
Another change being made by the Employment Act is that an employee will no longer have to raise a grievance procedure before being able to make a claim in the Employment Tribunal. This often led to a dispute concerning whether the grievance had been made which delayed matters for the employee and increased costs.
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