The government began consultation on proposals designed to improve the efficient operation of employment tribunals, and to encourage the resolution of disputes through mediation. Trade unions described the proposals as a squandered opportunity which could in fact lead to an increase in employment tribunal cases and threaten an employee s right to a fair hearing.
Source: Consultation on Draft Revised Employment Tribunal Regulations and Rules of Procedure, Department of Trade and Industry (0870 150 2500) | Press release 16 December 2003, Trades Union Congress (020 7467 1294)
Links: Consultation document (pdf) | Summary | Draft regulations (pdf) | TUC press release | HOC research briefing (pdf)
Date: 2003-Dec
The government responded to a report by a committee of MPs which criticised a lack of enforcement activity against illegal 'gangmasters' in the agricultural industry. It accepted that current lines of ministerial accountability were 'not as clear as they could be': but said it did not consider that the basic approach to enforcement activity was either wrong or inadequate.
Source: Gangmasters: Government Reply to the Committee's Report, First Special Report (Session 2003-04), HC 122, House of Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report | MPs' report
Date: 2003-Dec
New legislation came into force on 1 December 2003 which for the first time provided legal protection for lesbian, gay and bisexual workers against discrimination and harassment at work.
Source: Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2003, Statutory Instrument 2003/1661, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Statutory Instrument | ACAS guidance (pdf) | DTI summary (pdf)
Date: 2003-Dec
A report by a committee of MPs said that the government had failed to confront the problem of illegal activity within the agriculture and horticulture labour market, associated with 'gangmasters'. Enforcement of existing legislation was perfunctory and unco-ordinated. Enforcement agencies were insufficiently resourced and lacked the political backing to make a significant impact. It also said that the decline in the supply of casual labour in rural areas, and the relationships between supermarkets and their suppliers, were significant contributory factors. A backbench MP introduced a Bill for the licensing and regulation of gangmasters.
Source: Gangmasters, Fourteenth Report (Session 2002-03), HC 691, House of Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522) | Mark Simmonds MP, Licensing and Registration of Gangmasters Bill, TSO | House of Commons Hansard, Debate 10 September 2003, columns 331-334, TSO
Links: Report | Citizens Advice press release | Hansard
Date: 2003-Sep
A report warned that changes to the law were needed to prevent employers from refusing people jobs on the basis of genetic test results.
Source: Kristina Staley, Genetic Testing in the Workplace, GeneWatch UK (01298 871898), Trades Union Congress and British Council of Disabled People
Links: Report (pdf) | TUC press release
Date: 2003-Sep
Researchers said that the impact of employment legislation on small firms was 'mixed', and contingent on the market context and individual situation of each firm. The effects mainly arose from the context of the legislation, as opposed to its content. The focus of analysis should therefore be on the impact of specific legislation under certain circumstances, rather than on the impact on small firms as a whole.
Source: Paul Edwards, Monder Ram and John Black, The Impact of Employment Legislation on Small Firms: Case study analysis, Employment Relations Research Series 20, Department of Trade and Industry (020 7215 5177)
Links: Report (pdf)
Date: 2003-Sep
An Act giving Scottish workers the right to refuse Sunday shifts (from April 2004, in line with rights in England and Wales) received Royal assent.
Source: Sunday Working (Scotland) Act 2003, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Text of Act | BBC report
Date: 2003-Jul
Company directors argued that developments in employment legislation since 1997 had added nearly 6 billion a year to business costs. The most expensive regulations related to the working time directive ( 2.3 billion) and the national minimum wage ( 2.7 billion).
Source: Ruth Lea, Red Tape in the Workplace: Re-regulation of the labour market II - the sequel, Institute of Directors (020 7766 8866)
Links: Report (pdf) | Annexes (pdf) | IOD press release
Date: 2003-Jun
Draft regulations were published which would (from December 2003) outlaw discrimination in employment on the grounds of sexual orientation, religion or belief. A committee of MPs said that the regulations should not be approved until further scrutiny, because of doubts over the legality of provisions allowing discrimination against gay people by religious employers. However, the regulations were subsequently approved by MPs.
Source: The Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2003, Statutory Instrument 2003/1661, TSO (0870 600 5522) | The Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003, Statutory Instrument 2003/1660, TSO | Twenty-First Report (Session 2002-03), HC 96-xxi and HL 116, Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments (House of Commons and House of Lords), TSO | House of Commons Hansard, Debate 25.6.03, columns 1177-1180, TSO
Links: Sex orientation regulations | Religion/belief regulations | Joint Committee report | Hansard | Guardian report
Date: 2003-Jun
The Information Commissioner published a code of practice on monitoring of employees by their employers.
Source: The Employment Practices Data Protection Code: Part 3 - Monitoring at work, Information Commissioner (01625 545 700)
Links: Code (pdf) | Information Commissioner press release (pdf) | TUC press release
Date: 2003-Jun
A trade union report said that the arguments used by ministers and business lobbyists against giving agency workers equal pay and basic employment rights were 'at worst far-fetched and at best unproven'.
Source: Agency Work in Britain Today, Trades Union Congress (020 7467 1294)
Links: Report (pdf) | TUC press release
Date: 2003-May
A research report explored developments within trade unionism (in particular the new focus on organising, and the search for renewal through local activism and/or partnership agreements with employers), the extent to which they vary across Britain, and the implications for the trade union movement, employers and the national economy.
Source: Jane Wills, Geographies of Organised Labour: The reinvention of trade unionism in millennial Britain, Economic and Social Research Council (01793 413000)
Links: Press release
Date: 2003-Feb
A trade union report argued that an employer campaign against so-called red tape is 'misleading, based on false assumptions, and peddles untruths'.
Source: Unravelling the Red Tape Myths, Trades Union Congress (020 7467 1294)
Links: Report | Press release
Date: 2003-Feb
The government announced that a code of practice will be applied where a local authority transfers employees to a private or voluntary sector partner as part of a contract to provide any local public service. Similar arrangements will apply to other 'Best Value' authorities (such as passenger transport authorities). The code is designed to ensure that transferred workers receive comparable pay and conditions to those applying in the public sector. Employers said that the government had made it even harder to achieve its own objectives on public service reform.
Source: Press release 13.2.03, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (020 7944 3000) | Press release 13.2.03, Confederation of British Industry (020 7395 8247)
Links: ODPM press release | CBI press release | TUC press release | Guardian report
Date: 2003-Feb
The government began consultation on regulations to prohibit the blacklisting of trade unionists.
Source: Draft Regulations to Prohibit the Blacklisting of Trade Unionists, Department of Trade and Industry (0870 150 2500)
Links: Consultation Document (pdf)
Date: 2003-Feb
A study of employment discrimination cases in Wales found that there were too few sources of advice for people seeking redress through the tribunal process, and described Wales as an 'advice desert'.
Source: Charlotte Williams, John Borland, Aled Griffiths, Gwyneth Roberts and Elspeth Morris, Snakes and Ladders: Advice and support for employment discrimination cases in Wales, Department of Social Science/University of Wales (Bangor), available from Commission for Racial Equality (020 7939 0000)
Links: Report (pdf) | Summary (pdf)
Date: 2003-Feb
The government began consultation on the operation of the Employment Relations Act 1999, including statutory union recognition and derecognition procedures. But it said in advance that the Act is 'succeeding in delivering
better working standards and promoting a new climate of co-operation between workers and employers'. Trade unions said there were 'major disappointments' in the document.
Source: Review of the Employment Relations Act 1999, Department of Trade and Industry (0870 150 2500) | Press release 27.2.03, Department of Trade and Industry (020 7215 5000) | Press release 27.2.03, Trades Union Congress (020 7467 1294)
Links: Consultation Document (pdf) | Consultation Document (pdf sections) | Summary | DTI press release | TUC press release | CBI press release
Date: 2003-Feb
Employers published their response to two government consultations on the Employment Relations Act and the European Union directive on information and consultation. They urged the government to resist using the law to 'bolster unjustifiably' the role of trade unions in industrial relations.
Source: High Performance Workplace: The role of employee involvement in a modern economy - CBI response, Confederation of British Industry (020 7395 8247) | CBI Response on Extent of Review of Employment Relations Act, Confederation of British Industry
Links: Response on employee involvement (pdf) | Response on ERA (pdf) | Press release
Date: 2003-Jan