Red tape and regulation in employment law have been identified as disincentives to taking on employees and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills is consulting on a number of potential changes including:

• changing the employee qualifying period for unfair dismissal claims back to two years from April 2012
• considering a new ‘compensated, no-fault dismissal’ scheme for small employers (although there is no political consensus on this issue within the coalition Government)
• streamlining procedures for employment tribunals by May 2012 with individuals having to pay a fee to take a claim to tribunal
• introducing ‘protected conversations’ allowing employers to discuss poor performance and other issues with an employee without these being used in subsequent tribunal hearings
• simplifying the current TUPE regulations, the rules for compromise agreements and the new Agency Workers Regulations
• collective redundancies – reducing the current 90 day notice period for statutory consultations.

This update is provided courtesy of our strategic partner PKF(UK) Ltd.