Employment Act 2002

Product Information

The paternity leave provisions will allow fathers to take up to 2 weeks’ paid paternity leave. It must be taken within a period of 56 days beginning with the date of the birth or the child being placed for adoption. Paternity and adoption leave will only be available to employees, who have continuous service with the same employer for at least 26 weeks by the 15th week before the child is expected to be born, or, by the week in which an agreed match for adoption is made. The wording of the draft Regulations is such that the parental and adoption leave provisions will extend to co-habiting and same sex partners. award costs against a party’s representative for conducting the proceedings unreasonably (though ministers have made it clear that this will not apply in the case of representatives of 'not-for-profit' organisations, eg trade union officers); and The Employment Act 2002 ( c 22) is a UK Act of Parliament, which made a series of amendments to existing UK labour law.

Where an employer fails to follow the statutory dismissal and disciplinary procedures a dismissal will be automatically unfair. The Act also specifies that an employer’s failure to follow a procedure other than the statutory procedure will not by itself make a dismissal unfair, provided the employer can show that following the appropriate procedure would have made no difference to the decision to dismiss. The Act also provides the basis for amending employment tribunal rules to introduce a fixed period for conciliation by the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS), and to enable a tougher approach to the handling of weak cases. The Employment Act will also, from April 2003, give employees the right to request flexible working. Although there will be no automatic right to flexible working, the Act states that employers must give proper consideration to this type of request from employees. The Act sets out a procedure and timetable which employers must follow in responding to such an application, which will be fleshed out by regulations. The employer must arrange a meeting, within 28 days of receiving an application, to discuss the employee’s request, at which the employee may be accompanied by a representative. The employee must be informed of the employer’s decision within 14 days, and the employee has a further 14 days to appeal. The Act expands the legal requirements on employers to issue employees with a written statement of their main terms and conditions. Among other things, it removes the current 20-employee threshold that applies to the provision of information on disciplinary and grievance procedures. This means that all employers of whatever size will have to provide information on the statutory minimum disciplinary and dismissal procedures in the written statement.

This feature summarises the Employment Act’s main requirements and the timetable for their implementation, and looks at employer and trade union views of the new legislation. Key provisions of the Act 'Family-friendly' working an increase in the period of maternity leave to six months’ paid maternity leave followed by up to six months’ unpaid leave; Employers may refuse to grant requests for flexible working for objective business reasons. These may be because the working arrangement requested would add unreasonable costs to the business or it might have a detrimental impact on quality, performance or the ability to meet customer demand. Any refusal would need to be objectively justified and properly explained to the employees. The Employment Act, which reached the UK statute book in July 2002, introduces new provisions concerning 'family-friendly' working, the resolution of individual disputes at the workplace, equal treatment for fixed-term employees and other matters. This feature summarises its main requirements and the timetable for their implementation, and looks at employer and trade union views of the new legislation. Maternity leave is one which is included with the leave a mother should get when she has given birth to a child. In the UK a pula would get 26 weeks of paid leave for time they will need to spend with their child.

The Act sets out a statutory dismissal and disciplinary procedure and a statutory grievance procedure, each involving three stages. The standard dismissal and disciplinary procedure involves: Consultation on draft regulations containing detailed provisions on the operation of the new right closed on 10 October 2002. The regulations are due to take effect from April 2003. Employment tribunal reform The Fixed-term Employees (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2002 came into force on 1 October 2002. They provide that:

Text of the Employment Act 2002 as in force today (including any amendments) within the United Kingdom, from legislation.gov.uk. The Act also gives parents of children under six years of age (or disabled children up to the age of 18) the right to request flexible working patterns for childcare purposes, and places a duty on employers to give proper consideration to the request ( UK0112105N). The aim is to facilitate dialogue between working parents and their employers about working patterns that meet parents’ childcare responsibilities as well as employers’ business needs. Such a request may involve: The TUC has welcomed the enhanced parental leave entitlement and the statutory recognition of the role of union learning representatives. It is also broadly in favour of the requirement for companies to have minimum grievance and disciplinary procedures, but has been critical of the limited nature of the procedures set out by the legislation. Unions are unenthusiastic about other key parts of the Act as well. A resolution adopted at the September 2002 TUC conference ( UK0210101N) specifically criticised the Employment Act’s changes to employment tribunal law on the grounds that they are designed to deter employees from seeking to enforce their rights via a tribunal hearing. Commentary

a meeting between the employer and the employee to discuss the matter, at which the employee has the right to be accompanied ( UK0010195F), and after which the employee must be informed of the employer’s decision; and the introduction of a new right to two weeks’ paternity leave paid at the same standard rate as SMP. This is in addition to the existing right to 13 weeks’ parental leave;increases in the standard rate of statutory maternity pay (SMP) and maternity allowance to the lesser of GBP 100 per week or 90% of the employee’s average weekly earnings; The Employment Act 2002 contained new rules on maternity, paternity and adoption leave and pay, and changes to the tribunal system in the United Kingdom.