Statutory Instruments Published Introducing New Employment Laws

The Government has now published a number of statutory instruments that make various changes to employment law, some of which were previously only available in draft form. A revised version of the EAT rules has also been published to reflect the introduction of fees and other changes to EAT procedure.
Recent statutory instruments include:

• Employment Tribunals (Constitution and Rules of Procedure) (Consequential Amendments) Regulations 2013 SI 2013/1948. These Regulations come into force on 30 August 2013 to make amendments to a number of statutory instruments as a result of the introduction of the new employment tribunal rules of procedure on 29 July

• Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013 (Consequential Amendments) (Employment) Order 2013 SI 2013/1956. This Order comes into force on 30 August 2013 and amends various pieces of secondary legislation to reflect the renaming of ‘compromise agreements’ and ‘compromise contracts’ as ‘settlement agreements’ and ‘settlement contracts’ by S.23 of the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013

• Unfair Dismissal (Variation of the Limit of Compensatory Award) Order 2013 SI 2013/1949. This Order came into force on 29 July to amend the limit on the compensatory award for unfair dismissal claims by introducing an additional, alternative limit. In an unfair dismissal claim the limit on the compensatory award shall be the lower of a set amount (which is currently £74,200) and the product of 52 multiplied by a week’s pay of the employee concerned
• Added Tribunals (Employment Tribunals and Employment Appeal Tribunal) Order 2013 SI 2013/1892. This Order provides for employment tribunals and the EAT to be ‘added tribunals’ for the purpose of S.42 of the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007, enabling the Lord Chancellor to make an order under that provision to impose fees for anything they deal with

• Employment Tribunals and the Employment Appeal Tribunal Fees Order 2013 SI 2013/1893. This is the final version of the Order which introduced fees for claims made to an employment tribunal and appeals to the EAT from 29 July

• National Minimum Wage (Amendment) Regulations 2013 SI 2013/1975 increases the various national minimum wage rates on 1 October to the levels set out in our news story of 15 April.
The EAT has also issued a new practice direction which came into force on 29 July. It reflects recent changes to the rules and the introduction of fees as set out in our news story of 15 July 2013.