Employment Act 2002

Product Information

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 paternity leave provisions will allow fathers to take up to 2 weeks’ paid paternity leave. It must be taken within a period of 56 days beginning with the date of the birth or the child being placed for adoption. Paternity and adoption leave will only be available to employees, who have continuous service with the same employer for at least 26 weeks by the 15th week before the child is expected to be born, or, by the week in which an agreed match for adoption is made. The wording of the draft Regulations is such that the parental and adoption leave provisions will extend to co-habiting and same sex partners. The Act also gives parents of children under six years of age (or disabled children up to the age of 18) the right to request flexible working patterns for childcare purposes, and places a duty on employers to give proper consideration to the request ( UK0112105N). The aim is to facilitate dialogue between working parents and their employers about working patterns that meet parents’ childcare responsibilities as well as employers’ business needs. Such a request may involve:

The dispute resolution sections of the Act are expected to be implemented in late 2003. Equal treatment of fixed-term employees The Act introduces a number of changes to employment tribunal procedure. Among other things, it enables the secretary to state to make regulations authorising tribunals to:

Search Legislation

Consultation on draft regulations containing detailed provisions on the operation of the new right closed on 10 October 2002. The regulations are due to take effect from April 2003. Employment tribunal reform The Act sets out a statutory dismissal and disciplinary procedure and a statutory grievance procedure, each involving three stages. The standard dismissal and disciplinary procedure involves:

Where an employer fails to follow the statutory dismissal and disciplinary procedures a dismissal will be automatically unfair. The Act also specifies that an employer’s failure to follow a procedure other than the statutory procedure will not by itself make a dismissal unfair, provided the employer can show that following the appropriate procedure would have made no difference to the decision to dismiss. increases in the standard rate of statutory maternity pay (SMP) and maternity allowance to the lesser of GBP 100 per week or 90% of the employee’s average weekly earnings; Also, under this Act, there were many other factors such as equal pay, fixed-term work, flexible working. Having completed its passage through Parliament, the Employment Bill ( UK0112104N) received royal assent on 8 July 2002. The Employment Act 2002 is a major piece of legislation. Its key themes are the enhancement of statutory rights designed to help parents balance work and family commitments, and the reform of employment tribunal procedures and workplace dispute resolution mechanisms in response to the rising number and cost of employment tribunal claims in recent years ( UK0108142N). It also includes provisions on a range of other issues, including equal treatment for fixed-term employees and time off for trade union learning representatives. The Act, and several sets of associated regulations, will be implemented in a number of phases over the coming year.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 right will be available to all employees, who are parents or have responsibility for a child aged under 6, or disabled children aged under 18, and who have 26 weeks’ continuous service with the same employer. Draft Regulations state that the right will extend to those who are guardians or foster carers, or their spouse or partner. The request must be within 14 days of the 6th or 18th birthday.

The Act expands the legal requirements on employers to issue employees with a written statement of their main terms and conditions. Among other things, it removes the current 20-employee threshold that applies to the provision of information on disciplinary and grievance procedures. This means that all employers of whatever size will have to provide information on the statutory minimum disciplinary and dismissal procedures in the written statement. The Act seeks to encourage more individual employment disputes to be settled within the workplace, without recourse to an employment tribunal. It introduces statutory minimum internal disciplinary and grievance procedures for all organisations that employ staff, and measures to promote their use. Text of the Employment Act 2002 as in force today (including any amendments) within the United Kingdom, from legislation.gov.uk.The Employment Act essentially represents an uneasy trade-off between the extension of employee rights and measures to limit the use of litigation to enforce them. As a result, it is hardly surprising that neither the CBI nor the TUC is satisfied with the outcome. But there has also been criticism from within the legal profession of the Act’s provisions to limit recourse to tribunal hearings. Unusually, the President of Employment Tribunals (England and Wales), Judge John Prophet, publicly voiced concern that aspects of the legislation might violate the right to a fair hearing guaranteed by the Council of Europe's European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (see 'The Employment Act 2002 and the crisis of individual employment rights', Bob Hepple and Gillian Morris, Industrial Law Journal, September 2002). Detailed provision on the operation of these rights will be set out in regulations. Consultation on draft regulations closed on 19 July 2002.