Are you aware of changes to unfair dismissal rules?

Employers need to take note of a change to unfair dismissal laws, coming into effect from April 6 2012, which extends the qualifying service period for employees wanting to bring a claim to two years.

The new regulations will not be applied retrospectively, so employees starting work before April 6 2012 will continue to be able to claim unfair dismissal after only one year’s service.

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills says the aim of the policy is to reduce red tape and encourage greater recruitment by businesses.

However, employers should be aware that the law change does not give them the right to hire and fire at will, especially as employment claims involving discrimination or where employees’ statutory employment rights have been breached, still require no qualifying service at all.

To avoid the risk of financially damaging employment claims, businesses need to continue to follow employment laws to the letter. This means ensuring there is a fair reason for dismissing any employee, following the correct procedure for dismissals, and not dismissing an employee for an automatically unfair reason.

In light of the above changes, it would be wise to review your dismissal procedures giving particular consideration to any timeframes that may be written into employment contracts, such the length of employee probationary periods.

For more information on unfair dismissal, or any other employment law issue, contact our Employment team on 01772 258321.