Employees bringing equal pay claims will have the right to serve a questionnaire on their employers seeking information relevant to their claim or potential claim. This is in line with existing legislation covering sex, race and disability discrimination. Regulations on this issue are due to be laid before the end of 2002 for implementation in early 2003. Employer and trade union views The Employment Act 2002 ( c 22) is a UK Act of Parliament, which made a series of amendments to existing UK labour law. a meeting between the employer and the employee to discuss the matter, at which the employee has the right to be accompanied ( UK0010195F), and after which the employee must be informed of the employer’s decision; and This feature summarises the Employment Act’s main requirements and the timetable for their implementation, and looks at employer and trade union views of the new legislation. Key provisions of the Act 'Family-friendly' working The Act makes it an implied term of every employment contract that the statutory procedures are to apply in circumstances to be specified by the secretary of state in regulations. Contractual procedures that are additional to, and not inconsistent with, the statutory procedures will be unaffected.

The Employment Act will also, from April 2003, give employees the right to request flexible working. Although there will be no automatic right to flexible working, the Act states that employers must give proper consideration to this type of request from employees. Consultation on draft regulations containing detailed provisions on the operation of the new right closed on 10 October 2002. The regulations are due to take effect from April 2003. Employment tribunal reform The Employment Act, which has only recently been enacted, provides new rights for fathers to take paternity leave and, for couples adopting a child, the right for one of the couple to take adoption leave. The Act also provides for new rules on maternity leave and pay. The Act expands the legal requirements on employers to issue employees with a written statement of their main terms and conditions. Among other things, it removes the current 20-employee threshold that applies to the provision of information on disciplinary and grievance procedures. This means that all employers of whatever size will have to provide information on the statutory minimum disciplinary and dismissal procedures in the written statement. Employers must then arrange a meeting within 4 weeks of the request to consider and discuss the request with the employee. Every employer must write to the employee within 2 weeks of that meeting with a decision, giving reasons if the application is objected. The employee can appeal within 2 weeks of the employer’s decision and the appeal must be heard within 2 weeks.Detailed provision on the operation of these rights will be set out in regulations. Consultation on draft regulations closed on 19 July 2002. The Employment Act, which reached the UK statute book in July 2002, introduces new provisions concerning 'family-friendly' working, the resolution of individual disputes at the workplace, equal treatment for fixed-term employees and other matters. This feature summarises its main requirements and the timetable for their implementation, and looks at employer and trade union views of the new legislation.

Employers may refuse to grant requests for flexible working for objective business reasons. These may be because the working arrangement requested would add unreasonable costs to the business or it might have a detrimental impact on quality, performance or the ability to meet customer demand. Any refusal would need to be objectively justified and properly explained to the employees. Text of the Employment Act 2002 as in force today (including any amendments) within the United Kingdom, from legislation.gov.uk. Employment tribunals will be required to vary compensation awards by up to 50% where an employer or applicant has failed to use the statutory procedures. Moreover, the Act contains provisions preventing certain categories of complaint from being presented to tribunals until step 1 of the grievance procedure (sending written notice of a grievance to the employer) has been completed and at least 28 days have elapsed thereafter.Where an employer fails to follow the statutory dismissal and disciplinary procedures a dismissal will be automatically unfair. The Act also specifies that an employer’s failure to follow a procedure other than the statutory procedure will not by itself make a dismissal unfair, provided the employer can show that following the appropriate procedure would have made no difference to the decision to dismiss.