Law Update

We hope you have been enjoying the hot summer. Summer has also been a particularly hot time for us HR professionals keeping ourselves up to date with a number of key employment legislation changes which you can find in the summaries below;

 

Compromise Agreements change to Settlement Agreements
Under the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act, (ERRA), Compromise Agreements changed their name to Settlement Agreements effective 29th July 2013.

The main difference that previously there had to be a dispute between the employer and employee, this will no longer apply and parties may initiate, offer and discuss a Settlement Agreement even without a dispute arising.

ACAS have issued an accompanying code of practice for use of future Settlement Agreements. When offering a Settlement Agreement to an employee, they must be given a minimum of 10 calendar days to consider the Agreement, unless otherwise agreed with the employer. Settlement Agreements will not be disclosable in employment tribunals unless improper behaviour has taken place, i.e. harassment, discrimination or victimisation.

Changes to Whistleblowing Legislation
Effective 25th June 2013, a disclosure under the Whistleblowing legislation will not be protected unless it is, in the reasonable belief of the worker making the disclosure, "in the public interest". Accordingly, an employee who "blows the whistle" about breaches to his or her own employment contract will not normally be protected. The requirement that a protected disclosure must be made in good faith is removed from the same date. However, if it appears to an employment tribunal that a protected disclosure was not made in good faith, the tribunal may reduce a worker's compensation by up to 25%.

Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) Update
Effective 17th June 2013, the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) will allow employers to check the status of criminal record checks online. 

Tribunal fee changes
Effective 29th July, tribunals will be will charging fees for bringing or continuing a claim in an employment tribunal. There will be two stages of payment as follows:

payment at the time of issuing a claim
payment before the tribunal hearing

Fee Levels
Level 1 – fee of £160 on issue and a further £250 at the hearing stage
Level 2 – fee of £230 on issue and a further £950 at the hearing stage
Fee level 2 claims will involve more complex issues including unfair dismissal and discrimination claims. 

The fee structure for multiple claims and at the Employment Appeals Tribunal (EAT), will have an appeal fee of £400 and a hearing fee of £1,200.

Low earners and individuals in receipt of state benefits such as jobseekers allowance will be able to take advantage of the Civil fee remission scheme in obtaining full or partial waiver of fees of their tribunal proceedings.

Employment Tribunals will however have the power to order the unsuccessful party to reimburse the fee of the successful party.

Under the Employment Tribunals (constitution and rules of procedure) Regulations 2013 there will be an initial sift whereby every case will be reviewed on paper by an employment judge to confirm if there is an arguable case and defence. This will happen once the employer has responded to a claim. 
 

Changes to the role of ACAS
The Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013 (ERRA) contains proposals concerning changes to the role of ACAS which are expected to come into force from April 2014, by the introduction of a new Early Conciliation Scheme. In essence this will mean that any individual wishing to bring a claim against their employer (prospective claimant) will be required to contact ACAS prior to contacting the Tribunals Service. ACAS will have a short window of opportunity of up to a month to offer early conciliation to try and resolve the workplace dispute quickly and cost effectively.  

Share offers to new employees
Effective September 2013, employers will be permitted to give shares in their business to new employees, who in return will be expected to give up some fundamental employment rights. However, employees will not lose the right to make claims for a dismissal relating to discrimination, whistleblowing or any other automatically unfair reason. In return, the employer must give the employee fully paid up shares worth a minimum of £2,000 in either the employing company or its parent. 

Any employer offering shares will have a duty to protect an employee’s interests, which will include; providing details of the shares offered; explaining the employment rights that the employee will be giving up; giving employees a seven day cooling off period and ensuring employees are given the right to independent legal advice (the cost of which will be paid by the employer). 

Advantages of the scheme include generous tax reliefs and the first £2,000 can be given to an employee free from tax and NI. Disadvantages of the scheme include high administration costs of implementing the scheme and whether increasing share ownership could raise other issues, such as consideration as to whether, and for how much, individuals' shares can be bought back on termination of their employment.


If you would like any further information, or how to contact HR Response Ltd please go to our website or call 0115 9728708.