Do Governments Have Ears?

I’ve just read the Government’s response to its ‘Resolving Workplace Disputes’ consultation.  We submitted our own views (copies available for free if you are interested - email us if you’d like to see what we thought) and now we can see what the politicians think.

Our view was that a 12 months qualifying period for eligibility to claim Unfair Dismissal was alright.  2 years is too long.  Surely a decent employer will know inside a year whether they need to dismiss?  And there’s the adverse effect on staff job security too.

The Government noted:

-  Most consultation respondents disagreed with increasing the period to 2 years
-  The increase would not reduce the number of claims by the amount the government had forecast (read: their scaremongering was overdone)
-  Minority groups (e.g. women, disabled people) would probably be proportionately worse off following the increase
-  Small businesses weren’t any more affected by these claims than bigger ones

Good.  That’s settled then.  No need to increase the qualifying period.

The 2 year limit comes into force in April 2012.

And despite negative responses to the idea of ET judges sitting alone in these cases, the Government’s going to do that, too.

I’ve wondered for a few years now whether there’s any point responding to Government consultations.  Why ask the experts when you’ve made up your mind already?

- Paul Scholey, Senior Partner