The Employment Act 2008 (c 24) is an Act of the

Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprema ...

which reformed a wide range of different provisions of

UK labour law United Kingdom labour law regulates the relations between workers, employers and trade unions. People at work in the UK can rely upon a minimum charter of employment rights, which are found in Acts of Parliament, Regulations, common law and equit ...

. It is an amending statute, and therefore simply altered pre-existing law to remedy perceived problems in the law's operation to do with dispute resolution, strengthen enforcement of the minimum wage and employment agency standards and to conform with updated case law on trade unions, in particular, '' ASLEF v United Kingdom''. 007IRLR 361

Sections 1-7, dispute resolution

Through the Employment Act 2002 the government had introduced a mandatory statutory dismissal procedure, which had been designed to be followed in any case. If employers did not follow the procedure before dismissing their employees, the dismissal would be deemed automatically unfair. This meant that any employer who did not follow the mandatory procedure precisely could face severe penalties, even when acting in good faith. Section 1 repealed that part of the EA 2002 (and with it

ERA 1996 The Employment Rights Act 1996 (c. 18) is a United Kingdom Act of Parliament passed by the Conservative government to codify existing law on individual rights in UK labour law. History Previous statutes, dating from the Contracts of Employmen ...

s 98A) and instead gave tribunals a discretion to adjust the award by 25% if an employer had not complied with the Code of Practice for its industry on dismissal procedure (s 3). It also changes procedure for

ACAS The Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas) is a Crown non-departmental public body of the Government of the United Kingdom. Its purpose is to improve organisations and working life through the promotion and facilitation of strong ...

and employment tribunals. Essentially ACAS need only endeavour to reach a settlement, rather than having to reach a settlement and if someone does not turn up for a tribunal hearing both parties consent, then a judgment can be given by the tribunal without the expense of the hearing (ss 4-7).

Sections 8-14, minimum wage

Sections 8-12 change the NMWA 1998, which provides a statutory minimum wage for every worker in the UK. The minimum wage has three main methods for enforcement. First, it is hoped to be largely "self enforcing" because a well publicised minimum should be abided by everyone. Second, where workers are underpaid, they can bring claims to a tribunal by themselves. This individual enforcement is not perceived to be very effective, since workers will often not understand their exact rights, know how to bring a case to a tribunal or have the money to hire decent legal representation. This makes the third method of enforcement, by a government or administrative body, important for providing concrete adherence to the law. Just as consumers can complain to the Office of Fair Trading or pensioners can ask for help from the

Pensions Regulator The Pensions Regulator (TPR) is a non-departmental public body which regulates work-based pension schemes in the United Kingdom. Created under the Pensions Act 2004, the regulator replaced the Occupational Pensions Regulatory Authority (OPRA) fro ...

, workers can get help from the

Inland Revenue The Inland Revenue was, until April 2005, a department of the British Government responsible for the collection of direct taxation, including income tax, national insurance contributions, capital gains tax, inheritance tax, corporation t ...

. The changes in the EA 2008 were designed to strengthen this kind of enforcement. Section 9 replaced ss 19-22F with ss 19-19H. It means there is now one notice that the Inland Revenue will give to employers who underpay, and a civil penalty of up to £5000 may follow. Section 10 says that now minimum wage enforcement officers can remove documents if they return them as soon as reasonably possible, rather than just looking at them and copying them when they inspect. Section 11 means that offences can be tried in a Crown or magistrates court. Section 13 clarifies that Cadet Force Adult Volunteers do not qualify for the NMW. Section 14 makes a wordy and insignificant amendment to the s 44 NMWA 1998, which says voluntary workers do not get paid a minimum wage, but can claim reasonable expenses for the purpose of their volunteer work. Section 8 also altered the formula for calculating arrears of the minimum wage.

Sections 15-18, employment agencies

The

Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate The Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate is a division of the Employment Relations Directorate, part of the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, which is meant to oversee employment agencies operating in the United Kingd ...

is the small unit, a sub-division of the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills, which is charged with monitoring and enforcing standards for over 1.3m agency workers. These standards are found in the

Employment Agencies Act 1973 The Employment Agencies Act 1973 (c.35) is a United Kingdom Act of Parliament and part of a wider body of UK agency worker law. It regulates the conduct of employment agencies which recruit and manage temporary and permanent labour. It applies t ...

and the

Conduct of Employment Agencies and Businesses Regulations 2003 Conduct may refer to: Actions * Behavior, the range of actions and mannerisms made by entities ** Human behavior, the way people act *** Work behavior, the way people act on the job ** Conduct disorder, a mental disorder ** Action (philosophy), ...

(SI 2003/3319), and include things like penalties for false advertising of jobs, prohibitions on strike breaking and extra sanctions for failing to give agency workers their statutory rights. Section 15 now makes offences triable in the Crown or magistrates' court. EASI has additional inspection powers, and if a Scottish partnership is the employer who fails to comply with the relevant standards then the partners will be personally liable. Section 18 requires that Inland Revenue officers enforcing the minimum wage and EASI inspectors work together.

Section 19, union member expulsion

Section 19 amends trade union membership law in line with the decision by the

European Court of Human Rights The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR or ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights. The court hears applications alleging that ...

in '' ASLEF v United Kingdom''. This decided that members of the quasi-fascist

British National Party The British National Party (BNP) is a far-right, fascist political party in the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in Wigton, Cumbria, and its leader is Adam Walker. A minor party, it has no elected representatives at any level of UK gover ...

could lawfully be expelled from membership of a

trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ...

, and that it did not breach the right to freedom of association under Art 11 ECHR.

References

External links