News | Unfair dismissal qualifying period to increase?
A recent report, now confirmed by new ‘enterprise czar’ Lord Young indicates that David Cameron is considering doubling the qualifying period for unfair dismissal claims from the current 1 year to 2 years – effectively reversing the reduction made by the previous government.
Currently to make a claim of unfair dismissal an employee must have a year’s continuity of service at the date at which their employment comes to an end – or have been dismissed without notice within a week of gaining a year’s continuity of service.
The potential change is part of Mr Cameron’s efforts to create a "new economic dynamism" in Britain, whereby he stressed that small and medium-sized businesses provided the majority of the country's jobs. Lord Young said it was important for small businesses to be able to grow as they employed almost two thirds of people in Britain and contributed to half of the country's GDP output.
In general terms this is good news for employers, but of course they could still face claims of discrimination, or unfair dismissal claims where no qualifying period is required such as whistleblowing and certain health & safety, maternity and trade union related dismissals – which do tend to be more expensive to defend than 'ordinary' unfair dismissal claims.
09 November 2010
