Employment Law Changes 2012: A Retrograde Step
Fiona Martin
Earlier this year I was interviewed by Kirsty Wilkins at Legal Network Television, the media arm of the College of Law, to contribute to their online training programme. We discussed the employment law changes which were introduced in April 2012, and the implications for both employers and employees.
In the video, I discuss the unfair decision to extend qualifying periods for new employees from one to two years; the prohibitive introduction of Tribunal fees, creating an additional barrier to justice and imposing unfair costs mainly on claimants (employees); and the controversial move to allow protected conversations for micro-employers. Fortunately, this has since been dropped by the Government as lawyers acting for both employers and employees were united in the view that it created more problems than it solved. However, the Government have come back with new proposals to replace Compromise Agreements with Settlement Agreements. Critics have voiced their concerns that this appears to be no more than a mere name change. However, consultation is still ongoing until November 2012. At this point it is still not clear what this change will mean in practical terms. I will deal with this in detail in my next blog post.
I’d like to thank Kirsty Wilkins and the production team at Legal Network Television for providing the above clip. If you’d like to find out more about College of Law Media, please visit http://www.college-of-law.co.uk/College-of-Law-Media/.
It would be great to hear what you think of the employment law changes introduced this year, and how they have affected you as an employee or as a business owner. Leave your comments below or get in touch with me at fiona@ms-solicitors.co.uk.
