Legislation
The Government’s consultation “Success at work: Resolving disputes in the workplace” closed towards the end of June and a number of parties have now published their responses.
The common theme appears to be that the current statutory dismissal, disciplinary and grievance procedures should be repealed. There are, however, significant differences of opinion over what should replace them and what to do about procedural unfairness in unfair dismissal cases.
ACAS, which is expected to take a key role in the future dispute resolution structure, agreed the procedures should be repealed but cautioned against a “one size fits all” approach, recommending that a revised (and strengthened) ACAS code of practice on dispute resolution be supplemented by non-statutory guidance and increased resources for ACAS. This is at odds with the view of the CBI, which has called for simpler guidance.
The CBI opposed the imposition of sanctions by tribunals on parties who have made wholly inadequate steps to resolve their dispute, advocating instead more effective case management to weed out weak and vexatious claims and cases where employers have acted wholly unreasonably.
Citizen’s Advice strongly argued against using employment tribunal costs regime to encourage parties to take steps to resolve disputes before a hearing, expressing the view that this would discourage vulnerable workers from bringing claims.
The Government has put forward the suggestion of a new “impartial” telephone and internet service for employment disputes. However this came under criticism from all corners. In particular, questions were raised concerning the impartiality of such a service, particularly if its remit included the promotion of alternative dispute resolution.
Employment Simplification Bill
In July the Government’s draft legislative program was announced. Among the proposals is an Employment Simplification Bill that, in addition to repealing the statutory dispute resolution procedures, will bring together a number of measures that the DTI has been consulting on in recent months. These include:
- strengthening the enforcement framework for the national minimum wage
- amending section 174 of the Trade Unions and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 in order to comply with the European Court of Human Rights’ decision in Aslef -v- UK
- strengthening the employment agency standards enforcement regime and clarifying the extent of investigatory powers.