LEGISLATION

Minimum Wage

The National Minimum Wage (Enforcement Notices) Bill received Royal Assent on 8 May 2003. This extends existing legislation to enable enforcement notices to be issued against employers in respect of former employees as well as existing employees. This closes the existing lacuna highlighted in the EAT’s recent decision in Inland Revenue v Bibb Travel.

Disability Discrimination

The draft Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (Amendment) Regulations 2003 have been published and can be found at http://www.legislation.hmso.gov.uk/si/si2003/draft/20035776.htm

One of the significant changes for employers is the abolition of the small business exemption. Other changes include amendments to the definition of discrimination, an extension of application of the Act to the police, barristers and advocates, a prohibition on harassment and clarification on what may and may not amount to reasonable adjustment. The amendments are due to come into force on 1 October 2004.

Time off for Trade Union Duties

The rights for trade union learning representatives to take time off work to carry out their duties came into force on 27 April 2003. A representative of a recognised union is entitled to take time off work for, amongst other things; assessing training needs, arranging training, consultation with the employer regarding training needs and undergoing training. The ACAS Code of Practise has been updated to take account of this new legislation and is available at http://www.acas.org.uk/publications/pdf/CP03.pdf

Dispute Resolution

It appears likely that the requirement, under Part 3 of the Employment Act 2002, to insert statutory disciplinary and grievance procedures into all contracts of employment is unlikely to come into force before Autumn 2004 despite original plans for commencement in Spring 2003.

Corporate Killing

David Blunkett has now promised a new Bill will soon be introduced to tighten corporate manslaughter laws. Large corporations whose failure to set or maintain standards causes a death will be subject to an unlimited fine and be given a criminal record.

The legislation - originally promised by Labour in its 1997 manifesto- will be in the form of a new Bill rather than through an amendment to the Criminal Justice Bill currently before Parliament.

The offence of corporate manslaughter already exists, but to secure a conviction, it must be proved that a senior individual within an organisation has been grossly negligent – inevitably difficult in large corporations where duties are delegated and divided. So far, there have been very few successful prosecutions, and they have been restricted to small organisations where the individual responsible has been easily identified.

A more detailed review will appear in next months Employment Angles.