The government has moved to ease fears that new unfair dismissal laws, which mean employees cannot qualify for the right until completing two years’ of service, will not be applied retrospectively.
According to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), employees starting work before 6 April 2012 will continue to be able to claim unfair dismissal after one year's service. The new two-year qualifying period will only apply to employees who commence employment on or after 6 April 2012.
The extended qualifying period has been brought in to kick-start the UK’s employment markets, in the hope that it will lift the red tape burden faced by struggling employers.
Announcing the doubling of the qualifying period in October, Business Secretary Vince Cable said that businesses have told the government that “unfair dismissal rules are a major barrier to taking on more people”.
The BIS claims the aim of the policy is to encourage recruitment and it does not believe that it is "appropriate or necessary to apply it those already in work", according to XpertHR.
The Regulations to extend the unfair dismissal qualifying period from April 2012 are subject to parliamentary debate, but are expected to be published soon.
ENDS
Notes to editors
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Media information: Lianne Tracey
Stephensons Solicitors LLP
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E: lct@stephensons.co.uk
