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Change in sacking law due
Page 19
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THE PRESENT LAW on unfair dismissal and the handling of redundancies is likely to be changed by the new Government.
Employment Secretary James Prior is seeking the views of the Confederation of British Industry and the Trades Union Congress on the planned changes.
The object of the proposed changes is to ease the burden on employers who need to lose jobs and to encourage recruitment.
Two areas in which change is likely are the qualifying period for unfair dismissal and the period for consultation with trade unions and for notifying the Department of Employment of certain redundancies.
These two topics have been the subject of many representations, particularly from small businessmen. The Government believes that the qualifying period for complaints of unfair dismissal could be increased from 26 weeks' to 52 weeks' service. In the case of people under 18 years old, the service period might be increased to 109 weeks.
In the case of redundancies, a 30-day rather than 60-day period of consultation and notification of redundancies of less than 100 employees is proposed. The Government thinks this would be more practicable and realistic for smaller firms.