8 From 1st February 2002, the new maximum award for unfair dismissal increased to £60,100 made up of a maximum compensatory award of £52,600 and £7,500 basic award. Compensation for unlawful sex, race and disability discrimination remains unlimited.
8 In October 2001 the requirement in the Working Time Regulations that a worker must be employed for 13 weeks before becoming entitled to the statutory four weeks paid annual leave became illegal. Workers are now entitled to paid leave from day one of their employment, although in the first year it can be taken by accruing it at the rate of one twelfth of their full entitlement every month.
The Maternity and Parental Leave (Amendment) Regulations have changed the following rules:
Parents of children born or placed with them for adoption between 15 December 1994 and 14 December 1999 may take parental leave in respect of such children
Parents have three years in which to take their parental leave
Parental leave for parents of disabled children is increased from 13 to 18 weeks
Amongst the main points of the Employment Bill 2001 some of the most significant proposals are intended to reduce the current yearly 130,000 tribunal applications. In particular, there are some controversial measures intended to stop employees from lodging tribunal claims before exhausting company grievance and disciplinary procedures - failure to comply could risk losing half of any potential award.
Equally failure by employers to have or use fair disciplinary procedures can lead to the Tribunal determining that the dismissal was unfair and also affect the size of the award to the employee.
The Employment Bill sets out new provisions for statutory dismissal and disciplinary and grievance procedures, including powers to ensure they are used and completed with compensatory awards varied where they have not been by employers or applicant.
In addition the Government now regards the statutory Statement of Particulars (the ‘written statement’) of terms and conditions of employment to be the basis of the employment relationship and the first point of reference in disputes. Proposed changes are to be made in the legislation to ensure that all stages of the new minimum disciplinary and dismissal procedures must be set out in the written statement and the exemption for employers with less than 20 employees removed. This means that all employers will have to include their disciplinary rules and the new minimum procedures in the written statement.
Future articles will update progress on this Bill and other important changes or provide advice on key employment issues. Written by Clive Payne of CP Associates, a specialist adviser to PLASA Members on Human Resource Issues.
