We’ll be posting and tweeting regularly on www.walbrooklaw.com about the world of employment law and other economic, legal and regulatory developments which could affect the job market or sectors which we advise in.
2013 is a time of significant change for UK employment law with two important new pieces of legislation coming into force – the new Employment Tribunals Rules of Procedure 2013 on 29 July 2013 and the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013 which includes a range of different employment measures and is being implemented in stages.
There’s also the Growth and Infrastructure Act 2013 due to be come into force on 1 September 2013 – implementing the government’s “shares in exchange for employment rights” concept, the wisdom of which many business owners, employees and employment lawyers have called into question but which has certainly attracted media headlines.
The practical impact of these legislative changes varies from the semantic (compromise agreements being renamed “settlement agreements”) to the controversial (the new requirement for claimants to pay fees to issue tribunal claims and then to proceed with a hearing).
Some changes are regarded as being not particularly well thought through policy-wise in terms of their practical use and impact. For example, the inadmissibility of pre-termination negotiations in unfair dismissal claims (but not other types of claim) and the intention to create a new breed of employee shareholders who forfeit employment rights.
However, there’s no doubt that these are all significant changes that employers and employees need to be aware of, and we’ll be posting regular updates in the coming weeks and months on the key issues. We’ll also be posting on other issues which we think will be of interest to our clients and business contacts. So please keep an eye on our website for further news – and you can follow us on Twitter as well…
About Adam Fuge