Enterprise And Regulatory Reform Bill Published

Business Secretary Vince Cable has now presented the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill to Parliament. The Bill is seen as a central element in the Government's aim for strong, sustainable and balanced growth and contains a number of employment law measures.

Most notably there is a power for employment tribunals to impose financial penalties on employers where the employer has breached any of the worker's rights to which the claim relates and the employment tribunal is of the opinion that the breach has one or more aggravating features. The amount of the penalty will be subject to a minimum of £100 and a maximum of £5000, although there is a discount of 50% for early payment (within 21 days of the notice of penalty). The Bill also allows the Secretary of State to change the way compensatory awards are calculated and in future these may be limited by an amount related to median annual earnings or calculated with reference to the individual claimant's annual