The government has changed its manifesto commitment to offer all workers the right to claim unfair dismissal from their first day in a job. Ministers now plan to introduce the right after six months instead. Employment Solicitor at Morecrofts, Charles Millett gives his response to the change.
The Government has changed its manifesto commitment to offer all workers the right to claim unfair dismissal from their first day in a job.
Ministers now plan to introduce the right after six months instead. Employment Solicitor at Morecrofts, Charles Millett gives his response to the change.
A calamitous U-turn or a sensible compromise? Whichever of these is the most fitting description, the Government sudden announcement regarding its amended proposals for unfair dismissal rights has certainly made the headlines.
Having heralded the changes being brought in under the Employment Rights Bill as the biggest employment law changes for a generation, the Labour Government has now had to row back on its promise to grant unfair dismissal rights from day one of employment.
It appears that instead of having the proposed two distinct tiers of unfair dismissal rights depending on length of service, an employee’s unfair dismissal rights will now come into effect after 6 months of service. This is still a dramatic change from the current situation, which requires an employee to have 2 years’ service in order to claim ordinary unfair dismissal.
For over a year, since Labour was elected, we have been preparing clients for the forthcoming changes and seeking to guide them on what might be introduced in the end. Regular attendees of our quarterly training sessions here at Morecrofts will be familiar with our advice to await the detail in the legislation before panicking too much about what to do. This has been somewhat vindicated by the latest announcement, which has been a significant possibility ever since business groups and the House of Lords hit back at the radical proposal for day one unfair dismissal rights.
Although a watering down of the original proposals, the effect of giving unfair dismissal rights to an employee with only six months’ service is nevertheless groundbreaking. Even under past Labour governments over a decade ago, the requirement of continuous service for unfair dismissal was one year, but employers will now have to evaluate the suitability of employees for long-term employment within the first six months or risk complex processes for dismissing those employees.
Is it still important that we see the details of what is eventually made law rather than relying solely on headlines in the media, but what does seem clear is that the nightmare scenario that many businesses feared will be less impactful because of this change.