What are the upcoming changes to Employment legislation?
On 6 April 2009, the new Employment Act 2008 comes into force. Its effect is to repeal the Statutory Dispute Resolution Procedures that have been in place since 2004. Under those procedures, employers and employees were obliged to go through certain steps in order to attempt to resolve disputes, and failure to follow those steps would result in severe penalties for both parties. The new legislation encourages the use of the ACAS code of practice to deal with disciplinary procedures and grievances, but does not impose the severe sanctions for failing to follow the appropriate procedures, as seen in the 2004 Regulations. There will also be an expectation on parties to consider other means of resolving workplace disputes, such as Mediation. What is Workplace Mediation? Workplace Mediation is a cost effective and successful way of resolving disputes in the workplace by intervention at an early stage of any disagreement. This improves the likelihood of maintaining good and productive employ
