Unfair dismissal laws to go?

What are your thoughts and feelings on Cameron getting rid of the Unfair Dismissal option for 'unproductive workers'? See the blogs I have posted for more detail and links to the article I found through Twitter in October. I am interested to know how HR people in particular think about this - and do you think there are other options having worked with employers who are challenged by this option when they want to get rid of employees 'who don't fit in'?

Tags: CIPD, HR, Unfair, dismissal

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Permalink Reply by Amanda Longden on November 17, 2011 at 10:31

The unfair dismissal option isn't being removed completely but the current 12 month qualifying period for unfair dismissal rights is to be extended to 2 years from April 2012. Personally I don't think it will make a great deal of difference as it was not so long ago that it was at 2 years anyway. I certainly don't think it will encourage smaller businesses to employ more people, which is supposed to be the reason for making these changes. There is also a risk that disgruntled employees will try and go down the discrimination route instead.

What would make a difference, in my view, is employers having the skills to manage people better in the first place. This is an issue in businesses of all sizes in the UK but, for small businesses, the challenge is greater where you have a business owner trying to focus on running the business. Managing people well so that they are productive and doing the right things in the right way is hard work and time consuming. The alternative, however, is even harder and more time consuming and potentially very costly to the business.

Good, proactive, people management will identify the 'don't fit in' employees pretty quickly and they can then be managed out of the business fairly, regardless of the unfair dismissal qualifying period. Prevention is always better than cure!

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Permalink Reply by Julie Crowley on November 21, 2011 at 20:15

Thanks for this. A fair view. I misunderstood it seems what I had read. And yes, this would the ideal - effective performance management as we have both said before, and both believe to be the most cost effective and realistic way to deal with any staff/team members, positive or negative issues.

Interesting, so sorry I haven't had time to respond before now.

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Permalink Reply by Amanda Longden on November 22, 2011 at 9:35

It's a subject I think both of us could wax lyrical on indefinitely :-) And, of course, it all starts with ensuring that the right people are employed in the first place. I wonder how many business owners believe that they can't afford to enlist help in getting it right in the first place but would be shocked if they counted the cost of getting it wrong....