Good news for employers - new rules regarding unfair dismissal
The Government has issued draft legislation on it’s proposal to increase the qualifying period to claim unfair dismissal from one year to two. The Order is succinctly known as The Unfair Dismissal and Statement of Reasons for Dismissal (Variation of Qualifying Period) Order 2012, and can be viewed here http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukdsi/2012/9780111519974
The current wording means that the rule will not be retrospective, so only those employed on or after 6th April 2012 will be affected. Anyone employed on or before 5th April 2012 will still be subject to the one year rule.
The Order also affects employees ability to request a statement for the reason for their dismissal, and again, this right is only triggered once the qualifying period has been achieved, so from 6th April 2012, employees will only be able to request a statement once they have been employed for two years, not one.
