June 24, 2013

With holiday season approaching, don’t forget about the upcoming changes to employment law in between your summer sun (or rain!).  The key changes to be aware of are summarised briefly below:

• First off, beginning tomorrow on 25 June, the changes to the whistleblowing rules come into force.  This will limit whistleblowing protection to those who reasonably believe their disclosures are in the public interest.  However, there will no longer be any requirement to make the disclosure in good faith (although a Tribunal will be able to consider ‘bad faith’ arguments and reduce compensation by 25% if appropriate);
• Also, from 25 June, unfair dismissal claims can be brought without the usual two year service requirement if the dismissal relates to an employee’s political views or affiliation;
• Rounding off the June changes, the cap on compensation for unfair dismissal is also due to be reduced tomorrow (25 June) to the lower of the current cap (£74,200) or one year’s pay;
• On 29 July, the controversial employment tribunal fees will be introduced.  You may have heard that Unison has lodged an application for judicial review in relation to the introduction of the fees.  Their objection is on various grounds, including that they make it excessively difficult for individuals to access European Community law or that they indirectly discriminate against women.  It seems unlikely this challenge will succeed but we’re interested to see how this develops;
• Lastly, from 25 October, employment tribunals will be able to issue financial penalties for employers who breach a worker’s rights where they consider the breach had an aggravating factor.  The penalties can be between £100 and £5,000.

If you have any questions on any of these, please Marcus Rowland (marcus.rowland@wiggin.co.uk / 0207 927 9677) or Seth Roe (seth.roe@wiggin.co.uk / 01242 631 262)