Employment Law 2012 Looking Ahead To The Changes

New qualifying period for unfair dismissal claims

This will increase from 1 year to 2 years for new employees commencing work with an employer with effect from 6 April 2012. It is estimated that unfair dismissal claims will fall by 3000 cases per year and thus will encourage employers to recruit and retain new staff but more importantly claims not needing any qualifying service could rise as a result. This comes at a time when the Courts have recently extended the geographical limit of the UK's unfair dismissal legislation to an employee who only worked on rotation in Libya.

Parental leave

The increase from 13 weeks to 18 weeks is now being delayed until March 2013. The Government is still consulting on shared maternity leave proposals after 18 weeks so a mother and father can share the remaining 34 weeks' leave.