The Employment Act 2008 covers three main aspects of employment rights and trade union freedoms – reflected in the three sections of this booklet:• Part One outlines the new grievance and disciplinary procedures, the new ACAS Code of Practice and changes to Employment Tribunal procedures• Part Two outlines the main changes made to the National Minimum Wage (compensation, enforcement and powers of investigation) as well as new regulations aimed at better enforcing the NMW in relation to agency workers• Part Three considers the strengths and weaknesses of the so called “ASLEF Amendment” introduced in response to a European Court of Human Rights ruling that unions should be free to determine their own rules. http://www.ier.org.uk/publications/employment-act-2008 | Summary of the Employment Act 2008The 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. |

This link may also help: