Employment Act 2002

Product Information

The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) and the Trades Union Congress (TUC) have both given mixed reactions to the provisions of the Employment Act. The Employment Act 2002 ( c 22) is a UK Act of Parliament, which made a series of amendments to existing UK labour law. The Employment Act will also, from April 2003, give employees the right to request flexible working. Although there will be no automatic right to flexible working, the Act states that employers must give proper consideration to this type of request from employees.

The Government estimates that 3.8 million mothers and fathers will be eligible to make these requests. There is a target consent rate of 82%. The Government have said that if the target is not met, the policy will be considered and a review is promised in any event after 3 years. To what extent the greater use of workplace procedures will reduce the volume of tribunal applications remains to be seen. The government’s estimate that the reduction will be between 30,000 and 40,000 applications per year has been met with some scepticism, particularly from Labour Party peers during the House of Lords’ debates on the new legislation. In any event, the new employee rights introduced by the Act will themselves add to tribunal workloads, with the right to seek flexible working arrangements perhaps the most likely provision to generate a significant number of claims. More fundamentally, concerns have been expressed that the 'three-stage' statutory minimum procedures are too 'minimalist' to offer effective protection to employees. In particular, they do not meet the accepted standards set out in the current ACAS Code of Practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures. An Act to make provision for statutory rights to paternity and adoption leave and pay; to amend the law relating to statutory maternity leave and pay; to amend the Employment Tribunals Act 1996; to make provision for the use of statutory procedures in relation to employment disputes; to amend the law relating to particulars of employment; to make provision about compromise agreements; to make provision for questionnaires in relation to equal pay; to make provision in connection with trade union learning representatives; to amend section 110 of the Employment Rights Act 1996; to make provision about fixed-term work; to make provision about flexible working; to amend the law relating to matervkhnity allowance; to make provision for work-focused interviews for partners of benefit claimants; to make provision about the use of information for, or relating to, employment and training; and for connected purposes. The Act makes it an implied term of every employment contract that the statutory procedures are to apply in circumstances to be specified by the secretary of state in regulations. Contractual procedures that are additional to, and not inconsistent with, the statutory procedures will be unaffected. This new right to request flexible working is likely to be a matter which becomes more prominent and employers will need to start planning now as to how they will deal with such requests.The adoption leave provisions will mean that employees will have a right to take 26 weeks "ordinary" adoption leave, followed by 26 weeks unpaid additional adoption leave. The employee seeking adoption leave must produce a Matching Certificate from an approved adoption agency. The adoption can be of a child from overseas, but the child placed for adoption must be under 18. The leave can begin no earlier than 14 days before the expected date of placement and no later than the date on which a child is placed for adoption. The Act sets out a procedure and timetable which employers must follow in responding to such an application, which will be fleshed out by regulations. The employer must arrange a meeting, within 28 days of receiving an application, to discuss the employee’s request, at which the employee may be accompanied by a representative. The employee must be informed of the employer’s decision within 14 days, and the employee has a further 14 days to appeal. Maternity leave is one which is included with the leave a mother should get when she has given birth to a child. In the UK a pula would get 26 weeks of paid leave for time they will need to spend with their child.

This feature summarises the Employment Act’s main requirements and the timetable for their implementation, and looks at employer and trade union views of the new legislation. Key provisions of the Act 'Family-friendly' working Employees wishing to take maternity leave will need to notify their employer by the 15th week before the expected week of childbirth. All notice periods, e.g. on changes to the start of maternity leave or with the expected return date, will be 28 days. fixed-term employees should not be treated less favourably than comparable permanent employees on the grounds they are fixed-term employees, unless this is objectively justified; and the use of successive fixed-term contracts will be limited to four years, unless the use of further fixed-term contracts is justified on objective grounds.Text of the Employment Act 2002 as in force today (including any amendments) within the United Kingdom, from legislation.gov.uk. an increase in the period of maternity leave to six months’ paid maternity leave followed by up to six months’ unpaid leave; award costs against a party’s representative for conducting the proceedings unreasonably (though ministers have made it clear that this will not apply in the case of representatives of 'not-for-profit' organisations, eg trade union officers); and