Weekly Issue 264

Employment law changes for April 2012

A number of important employment law changes came into effect last week, including an increase in the qualifying period for unfair dismissal for new starters and costs awards to businesses in so-called vexatious Tribunal claims.

Genuine application

When making someone redundant, employers have to act reasonably when considering the pool for selection. In Capita Hartshead Ltd v Byard, the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) said that although the question of how the pool should be defined was “primarily” a matter for employers, it was not impossible for employees to successfully challenge their decision.

Criminal burden

Depending on the seriousness of the incident, an employer may feel obliged to report an employee to the police. In Crawford and anor v Suffolk Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust, the Court of Appeal said that employers should only do so after very careful consideration “as being under the cloud of possible criminal proceedings is a very heavy burden” for employees.