Business Secretary Vince Cable has announced a number of proposed employment law reforms as part of the Government’s Employment Law Review. They represent the most radical reform to the employment law system for decades as part of the Government’s aim to achieve economic growth, while cutting unnecessary demands on business and safeguarding workers’ rights.

The proposals are set out in the Government response to the ‘Resolving Workplace Disputes’ consultation, which was launched on the 27 January 2011 and which closed on 20 April 2011. The key proposals are as follows:

• Unfair dismissal: The qualification period to lodge an unfair dismissal claim will increase from one year to two years, from April 2012.
• All claims to be lodged with Acas: All potential employment tribunal claims are to be lodged with Acas in the first instance. Acas will offer parties the opportunity to engage in early conciliation in an attempt to resolve the matter without recourse to an Employment Tribunal. Where early conciliation is refused, or is unsuccessful, the claimant will be able to proceed to lodge a claim with the tribunal.
• Alternative dispute resolution: The Government will consider whether and how it can introduce a scheme to provide quicker, cheaper, determinations in low value, straightforward claims (such as holiday pay) as an alternative to the current employment tribunal process. Any such scheme could involve non-judicial determination (by legally qualified individuals or otherwise) based only on papers (i.e. no oral hearing).
• Simplifying compromise agreements: Compromise agreements will be renamed as “settlement agreements”, the Government will consider creating a standard text to be used in such agreements, along with guidance and will consider amending the Employment Rights Act 1996 to allow compromise agreements to cover all existing and future claims without the need to list all the separate causes of action.
• Protected conversations: The Government will consult on the introduction of a system of ‘protected conversations’ that would allow employers, or employees, to initiate a conversation about an employment issue at any time (i.e. without the existence of a formal dispute) as a way of resolving the matter without fear.
• Streamlining the tribunal process: A fundamental review of employment tribunal rules of procedure will be led by Mr Justice Underhill to include: (i) addressing concerns that the Rules have become “increasingly complex and unwieldy over time”; (ii) changes to cost and deposit orders (increasing the limit for deposit orders from £500 to £1,000 and for costs orders from £10,000 to £20,000); (iii) procedures for witness statements to be taken ‘as read’ in proceedings; and (iv) judges sitting alone in unfair dismissal cases (see below).
• Unfair dismissal claims to be ‘sit-alone’ hearings: Employment judges will be able to sit alone in unfair dismissal cases, without lay members, unless the judge directs otherwise. This change is being introduced despite the consultation response being overwhelmingly against the proposal because the potential savings available to the tax payer are considered more important. The necessary rule change will be made at the earliest opportunity.
• Financial penalties for breaching employment rights: A discretionary power will be introduced for employment tribunals to impose a financial penalty on employers that have been found to have breached employment rights, payable to the Exchequer. The financial penalty will be based on the total amount of the tribunal award, with a minimum threshold of £100 and a maximum of £5,000. A penalty will be reduced by 50% if payment is made within 21 days.
• Fees for lodging tribunal claims: The Ministry of Justice will consult on introducing fees for tribunal claims, seeking views on two options: (i) a system involving payment of a fee to lodge a claim, and a second fee to take that claim to a hearing; and (ii) a £30,000 threshold, so that claimants seeking an award of more than this will need to pay a higher fee.
• Breach of contract excluded from whistleblowing: The Government will amend the whistleblowing legislation to prevent a breach of an employment contract being classed as a qualifying disclosure as this is not something that the legislation was designed to achieve.
• Criminal Records Bureau checks: From 2013, once a CRB check has been completed, the results will be available online for employers to confirm that no new information has been added since the check was originally conducted. This will mean that CRB checks are portable, and that an employee will not have to have a new check every time he or she starts a new job.

In addition to the above:
TUPE reform: The Government has launched a Call for Evidence today on the effectiveness of the TUPE regulations and how they might be improved, if at all. The Government is concerned that some businesses believe the TUPE regulations are gold-plated and overly bureaucratic. The closure date is 31 January 2012.

Collective redundancies consultation: The Government has also launched a Call for Evidence today on the rules governing statutory consultations on collective redundancies. In particular, views on the advantages and disadvantages of reducing the current 90-day consultation period for redundancies of 100+ to 60, 45 or 30 days are being sought. The call for evidence closes on 31 January 2012.