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Employment Act 2008

Type of Bill:
Government Bill
Sponsors:
Lord Jones of Birmingham
Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform
Pat McFadden
Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform

Progress of the Bill

Bill started in the House of Lords

  1. House of Lords
    1. 1st reading
    2. 2nd reading
    3. Committee stage
    4. Report stage
    5. 3rd reading
  2. House of Commons
    1. 1st reading
    2. 2nd reading
    3. Committee stage
    4. Report stage
    5. 3rd reading
  3. Consideration of Amendments
  4. Royal Assent

Last events

Act of Parliament

House Act Date
Employment Act 2008. c.24. HTML version. 14.11.2008

Summary of the Employment Act 2008

The Bill contains proposals to reform existing law covering industrial relations and employment protection.

Key areas

  • Repeals the Employment Act 2002 (Dispute Resolution) Regulations 2004 which were intended to reduce employment litigation, but had unintended consequences in practice
  • The statutory dispute resolution procedures will be replaced by a new non-regulatory system; a package of measures to encourage early/informal resolution of employment disputes possibly with increased support for the involvement of Acas
  • Clarifies and strengthens the enforcement framework for the National Minimum Wage
  • Clarifies and strengthens employment agency standards to address some of the concerns about vulnerable workers
  • Changes the relevant labour law to ensure compliance with the European Court of Human Rights judgement in Aslef v UK. This requires clearer rights for trade unions to determine their membership, after domestic courts held that trade unions could not lawfully expel British National Party activists.

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