Law firms specialising in employees law are expecting a rise in consultations in the face of new employment law uk legislation. With employee employment law affected by the new coalition government’s new austerity measures, it is likely that there will be a rise in litigation as the result of a ‘legislative void’.
In a measure to address the United Kingdom’s pensions shortfall, the Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition government is introducing legislation that basically stops employers from retiring their employees at the current retirement age of 65. It is hoped that this will incentivise people to work for longer, and thereby ease the pensions burden. The Department for Business is expected to publish its response to the consultation over the default age of retirement in the next week or so. However, various businesses and business groups are already warning that this is a highly noteworthy law change, and arguing that it needs to be considered at far greater length before, if at all, it should be introduced. EEF, the Manufacturers Organisation, and the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) have both warned that they are not ready for such a major change in UK employment law.
Both organisations are asking for a significant delay to the changes, and both argue that litigation may be needlessly created, because the so-called ‘legislative void’ created by the scrapping of the retirement age will lead to accusations of ageism when employers ask their staff when they are planning to retire. The EEF calls for a delay of at least a year, so that there is ample time to introduce a replacement law that is able to clear up the uncertainty created by the change, and thus avoid litigation. The CBI, meanwhile, similarly argues that the uncertainty could cause employers to inadvertently find themselves on the wrong side of the law and facing accusations of age discrimination. On the other side of the fence, the confusion could lead to unwarranted accusations from employees.
It may come as a relief to many a confused employer, then, that there are law firms, specialising in employees law, that do not ask for extortionate fees for mere consultation. With such uncertainty in the wake of significant alterations to employment law UK, many people will need just that. With employee employment law it can be very difficult to know where you stand without specialist advice at the best of times, let alone in what is effectively new legal territory.
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