Employee rights, changing to 2 years, help.

thunderb0lt

Hello, I'm not sure if this has been covered already, sorry if it has.

I'm just curious, I have read that the rule for having employee rights and being able to take action for unfair dismissal is set to change from 1 year of employment to 2 years from April this year. Is this new rule going to be applied restrospectively. What I mean is say an employee currently has just over a years service with a company. Come April, will he/she go from having rights to having no rights as he/she has had less than 2 years service with the company.

Or is the rule to be applied with effect from April in respect of new starters with companies from this month will have to have 2 years service before they have any real rights.

I hope this makes sense and look forward to reading any replies.

Thanks

jobbingmusician

It won't be applied retrospectively.

According to some of the experts on this board, it won't be applied at all - although the posts were made some time ago. Try searching the board for maybe '2 years' and see if you can find the posts!

SarEl

The regulations have not been published, but I would be expecting, as it has previously been the norm, that it will be applied retrospectively.

And if you think that's bad - you don't know the half of it. The proposals for other areas of changes make that look, well, sort of kind...

Such as:

• all tribunal claims must first go through ACAS conciliation (which would be fine if they didn't have tragets to settle cases - unrepresented people will almost certainly be disadvantaged)
• fees of between £250 and £1250 to lodge a claim
• A review of TUPE regulations which amongst the likley changes will be a lessening of the protections for tranferred employees (in case you thought it provided you with protections at all!)

And to cap it all - although this is also coming from a recent ECJ judgement too:

• limitations on leave accrual for employees on long term sickness - but which I wouldn't bet won't extend to other groups such as women on maternity leave too.

But there is some really good news too - employers who are found to have broken employment law by a tribunal (if there are any employment laws left for them to break) may have to pay a fine of 50% of the tribunal award (capped at £5,000) to the government. That'll teach them....

jobbingmusician

Really? :eek: You mean people like me who have protection because they have worked in a post for a year will lose that protection again until they have passed the 2 year point? :eek: :eek: :eek:

Or do you mean that it will be retrospective in that people who HAVEN'T yet passed the year point will be unprotected????

SarEl

jobbingmusician wrote: »

It won't be applied retrospectively. Oh yes it will - want to bet???

According to some of the experts on this board, it won't be applied at all - although the posts were made some time ago. Try searching the board for maybe '2 years' and see if you can find the posts! The original legislation of this type was defeated in Europe on equality grounds - there is no guarantee it will be again, and even if it is, you will have to live with it for quite some time before it is. But I wouldn't take any bets on the Tories not having something up their sleeve on this - much as I like to think them stupid, I cannot see them inviting defeat on the same legislative grounds again.

And I don't think any of us ever thought it wouldn't be applied retrospectively - the only grounds for legal argument is whether they can get away with it. But that will not be an argument settled overnight. Or this year. or possibly even next. Or even the one after that.

SarEl

jobbingmusician wrote: »

Really? :eek: You mean people like me who will have protection because they have worked in a post for a year will lose that protection again? :eek: :eek: :eek:

Or do you mean that it will be retrospective in that people who HAVEN'T yet passed the year point will be unprotected????

I meant the former and not the latter. You will lose the protections until you pass two years. I can't guarantee that because as I said - the regulations haven't been published. But this is what has happened in the past and I can see no reason for it not happening again. My advice to everyone is assume the worst - it will probably happen in this case.

MissSarah1972

Sorry for asking a really dim question but what protection would you have? If a company want to scak you, can they not just do it for whatever reason they want, with no warnings?

SarEl

MissSarah1972 wrote: »

Sorry for asking a really dim question but what protection would you have? If a company want to scak you, can they not just do it for whatever reason they want, with no warnings?

Yes they can - but if you have qualifying service you can claim unfair dismissal at an employment tribunal.

Mark_h_4

I have recently done a TUPE transfer (Last october) can I realistically expect this to change my working life much soon?

SarEl

Mark_h wrote: »

I have recently done a TUPE transfer (Last october) can I realistically expect this to change my working life much soon?

That depends entirely on what the employer thinks about your working life! People often fail to appreciate that TUPE protects their terms and conditions at the point of transfer, and things can, if the employer constructs their arguments with care (and it actually doesn't take a rocket scientist to do this) start making changes immediately.

MissSarah1972

SarEl wrote: »

Yes they can - but if you have qualifying service you can claim unfair dismissal at an employment tribunal.

So what we are saying is possibly when the new rule comes into play unless you have been with an employer two full years they can sack you and as long as they have gone through proceedure you can't clain unfair dismissal or they do not even have to follow proceedure?