An employment law update

It has been another tough year for employers trying to keep up-to-date with complex employment law and health and safety legislation.

During 2003 there were over 100,000 Employment Tribunal (ET) applications and the mountain of employer responsibility is set to grow again over the next 12 months.

Peter Done, managing director of Peninsula, provides an overview of amendments and additions to legislation that govern employment law and health and safety.

There are many regulations, from working hours to company mobile phones, which employers must prepare for and be aware of these include:

Employment Zones Regulations 2003: October 2003

The Regulations make provision for a claimant of a jobseeker's allowance to participate in an employment zone programme established by the Secretary of State under the Welfare Reform and Pensions Act 1999, section 60 in areas of Great Britain known as 'employment zones'. This assists jobseekers in obtaining sustainable employment. See www.hmso.gov.uk for further details.

Management of Health and Safety Regulations 2003: October 2003

The Management of Health and Safety at Work and Fire Precautions (Workplace) (Amendment) Regulations 2003 make a small number of amendments rectifying minor defects in the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 and the Fire Precautions (Workplace) Regulations 1997. In addition, the Regulations provide that employees may now bring civil claims against their employers where they are in breach of duties imposed by the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999. See www.hmso.gov.uk for further details.

Regulations banning hand-held mobiles while driving: December 2003

The regulations create a criminal offence of using a hand-held mobile phone or similar device while driving. Under the regulation, employers that 'cause or permit' their employees to use a hand-held phone while driving will be liable.

Sexual orientation (Amendment) Regulations 2003: December 2003

The Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2003 (Amendment) Regulations 2003 amend the Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2003 to outlaw discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation by trustees and managers of occupational pension schemes. See the Department of Trade and Industry website: www.dti.gov.uk for details.

Religion or Belief (Amendment) Regulations 2003: December 2003

The Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003 (Amendment) Regulations 2003 amend the Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003 to outlaw discrimination on the grounds of religion or belief by trustees and managers of occupational pension schemes. See www.dti.gov.uk for details.

Religious discrimination legislation: December 2003

The Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003 make it unlawful to discriminate on grounds of religion or belief in employment and vocational training. This includes direct discrimination, indirect discrimination, victimisation and harassment.

New employment agency regulations: due early 2004

Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2002 come into force. Under the new Regulations, organisations offering work-finding services are required to make it clear whether they operate as employment agencies or employment businesses. The rules prevent agencies charging a fee when a temporary employee is permanently engaged, unless an extended hiring period has first been offered on usual terms.

TUPE reforms: due April 2004

Reforms to the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 1981 (TUPE) come into force. Proposed reforms include applying the Regulations more comprehensively to service contracting operations, introducing a requirement on the transferor to notify the transferee of the employment liabilities that will be transferring; clarifying when employers can lawfully make transfer-related dismissals and negotiate transfer-related changes to terms and conditions of employment for 'economic, technical or organisational' (ETO) reasons.

New asbestos regulation: due May 2004

Control of Asbestos at Work Regulations 2002, regulation 4 requires anyone with maintenance and repair responsibilities for a workplace to take reasonable steps to locate materials likely to contain asbestos; keep an up-to-date written record of the location of these materials; monitor the condition of these materials; assess the risk of exposure from asbestos and materials that are presumed to be asbestos; and prepare and implement a plan to control these risks. Regulation 4 can be viewed at www.hmso.gov.uk

Working time - junior doctors: due August 2004

First part of phased introduction of junior doctors' hours limit: 58-hour maximum week.

Dispute Resolution Regulations: due October 2004

The Employment Act 2002 (Dispute Resolution) Regulations require employers to develop and make available to employees minimum statutory procedures for resolving grievances and dealing with allegations of misconduct and poor performance in the workplace. The draft Regulations can be viewed at www.dti.gov.uk

New Disability Discrimination Act regulations: due October 2004

Changes to the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 include the removal of the exemption for employers with fewer than 15 employees, the extension of the Act to previously excluded sectors including fire-fighters and prison officers, and a change to the burden of proof. The draft Regulations can be viewed at www.dti.gov.uk

Occupational health - new asbestos regulation: due November 2004

Control of Asbestos at Work Regulations 2002, regulation 20 comes into force. It requires any person analysing a material in order to determine whether it contains asbestos to comply with European Standard EN ISO/IEC 17025. For Regulation 20 see www.hmso.gov.uk

Information and consultation legislation: due March 2005

The Information and Consultation Directive, which establishes a general framework setting out minimum requirements for the right to information and consultation of employees in undertakings or establishments within the European Community, is implemented in the UK.

Sexual and sex-related harassment legislation: due October 2005

Legislation to comply with the Equal Treatment Directive comes into force. The Directive introduces a definition of sexual harassment that incorporates both sex-related harassment and sexual harassment.

Data Protection Act 1998: comes fully into force October 2007

Manual filing systems in existence before 24 October 1998 are now required to comply fully with the Data Protection Directive (95/46/EC).

This overview looks at past and future legislation but there may be further legislation announced at any time and employers must be prudent to ensure that they are keeping up-to-date to avoid the burden of red tape litigation. The complexities of employment law make this an almost impossible task for businesses who find the process a financial burden as time is taken away from their core business.