News Article

New Legislation Pending


Posted by Chris Owen | Date Posted 09.08.2007 | Time Posted 10:42:28 | Views: 683

Last month Gordon Brown revealed the Government's forthcoming draft legislative programme that it intends to propose to Parliament in the next session. As well as reforms on pensions and an education and skills bill, one of the major new pieces of legislation (which should please employers!) will be the Employment Simplification Bill. The purpose of the Bill is to 'Simplify, clarify and build a stronger enforcement regime for key aspects of employment law'.

The main elements of the bill are:

- Implementation of the outcome of the Gibbons review of workplace dispute resolution, including repeal of the statutory dispute resolution procedures and implementation of a package of replacement measures to encourage early/informal resolution and changes to the employment tribunal system;

- Clarification and strengthening of the enforcement framework for the National Minimum Wage, specifically through the introduction of a straightforward penalty that can be levied against all non compliant businesses and a fairer method of calculating arrears;

- Strengthening the employment agency standards enforcement regime by making offences under the Employment Agencies Act each way offences and clarifying investigative powers; and

- An amendment to trade union membership law in light of the European Court of Human Right's judgment in
Aslef v UK (such that trade unions can expel members on the basis of their membership of a political party).

The main 'benefits' of the bill are:

- Significant administrative savings for businesses, specifically through legislation to implement the Gibbons review of workplace dispute resolution, with an estimated benefit to business of up to £180m/year;

- Further cost and time savings for businesses, trade unions, individuals and public sector bodies;

- Delivering a more straightforward and transparent enforcement and penalties regime for the national minimum wage (NMW) and employment agency standards, to provide greater support to vulnerable workers, fair arrears for the underpaid and a level playing field for compliant businesses

- Greater clarity for employers, trade unions and employees

The CBI's response to the proposals was generally positive and Ben Willmott, CIPD Employee Relations Adviser, also praised the Employment Simplification Bill: "We are delighted that the government is acting on the Gibbons review recommendations made earlier this year, particularly in scrapping the statutory dispute resolution procedures. These have done little to improve the dispute resolution process, and actually made things worse."


Published in sections: Health and Safety ::

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