The qualifying period for unfair dismissal claims will change from 1 year to 2 years on 6th April 2012. Subject to approval by Parliament, it looks like this will not be retrospective.
Employees who commenced their employment on or before 5th April 2012 will still only need one year's service in order to be able to lodge a claim for unfair dismissal.
Employees who begin their employment on or after 6th April 2012 will need to have 2 years' service in order to qualify.
Effectively, this means that employers won't start to feel the benefit of this change until April 2013.
You might need to amend your Disciplinary, Capability and Redundancy policies and procedures to reflect this change. And if you use probationary periods wisely, you can hopefully avoid being caught up in unfair dismissal procedures at all.
Give us a call if you need help with any of your policies and procedures.
Employees who commenced their employment on or before 5th April 2012 will still only need one year's service in order to be able to lodge a claim for unfair dismissal.
Employees who begin their employment on or after 6th April 2012 will need to have 2 years' service in order to qualify.
Effectively, this means that employers won't start to feel the benefit of this change until April 2013.
You might need to amend your Disciplinary, Capability and Redundancy policies and procedures to reflect this change. And if you use probationary periods wisely, you can hopefully avoid being caught up in unfair dismissal procedures at all.
Give us a call if you need help with any of your policies and procedures.
