The UK Government yesterday announced two significant changes to UK employment laws intended to favour employers. These will come into effect in 2012 and 2013 respectively.

Increasing the qualifying period

Currently, employees gain protection against being unfairly dismissed only after they have been employed for a year (known as the “qualifying period”). There are a few exceptions to this rule, where a dismissal will be automatically unfair, including (but not limited to) where an employee claims he or she is unfairly dismissed for a reason relating to pregnancy or family leave, for asserting a statutory right, for health and safety reasons, for a reason relating to trade union activities or because he or she has made a qualifying “protected disclosure” (e.g. the employee has told the employer in good faith that he or she believes a breach of a legal obligation has or is likely to occur). Employees currently have, and will retain, rights to bring claims for unlawful discrimination without completing a qualifying period.

Please see full Alert below for further information.