Government to consider reform of discrimination compensation, collective redundancy and TUPE

As part of its ongoing review of employment law, the Government has announced that it will consider reforming three areas: compensation for discrimination; collective redundancy rules; and TUPE. However, the announcement does not set out any proposals, merely confirming that the Government will "look in detail at the case for reforming" these areas. 

The announcement provides some brief details on why the Government is looking at the areas in question. With regard to discrimination compensation, the Government states that employers have "expressed concern" about high levels awarded in some cases and the lack of certainty about what they might be forced to pay if they lose. 

With regard to collective redundancies, the Government states that employers are concerned that it is not clear from the legislation at what point consultation on redundancies should start or end (an issue that is currently the subject of a Court of Appeal reference to the European Court of Justice), and that the 90-day consultation period is too long. Finally, the announcement says that "some businesses" believe the TUPE provisions are "overly bureaucratic" and "gold plated" - in other words, that the UK went further than it was required to do so by the EC directive when transposing it into national law. 

The Government will start reviewing the areas this year, but says that it wants to "ensure that the regulations are fit for purpose" and that, if there is a case for reform, legislation will not necessarily be the route used to implement it. Given that two of the three areas under review are heavily regulated by EU law, it remains to be seen exactly what the Government can and will do. 

Also

Red Tape Challenge website The website for the Government's plan to reduce the burden of regulation, which includes sections on employment and equalities regulation. 

The pointless Red Tape Challenge Consultant editor Darren Newman argues that numerous sets of regulations do not in themselves create red tape. Instead of presenting employers with incomplete and irrelevant lists of legislation, seemingly to demonstrate the red tape burden, the Government should address the question of which rights employees should and should not enjoy.