It would be wrong to assume that the Employment Act 2008 is confined to the abolition of the Statutory Dispute Resolution Procedures. Whilst this is the most publicised change being introduced by the Act we must not overlook the fact that it makes a number of other important changes, including:
- changes to the National Minimum Wage (NMW);
- Employment Agencies' enforcement regimes; and
- a trade unions' ability to expel members.
NMW changes
The Act will improve the enforcement framework for the NMW by introducing a new formula for calculating arrears for employees who have been paid below the NMW. The current enforcement and penalty notices for failure to pay the NMW will be replaced with a single "notice of underpayment" thus simplifying the regime. Existing offences under the NMW Act 1998 will now be triable either way in a Crown Court or Magistrates' Court. Most significantly of all however is that tribunals will be given the power to award compensation to reflect the financial loss suffered as a result of an unlawful deduction from wages.
Trade Union Act changes
Further changes introduced by the Act will be an amendment to the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 which will empower unions to bar people joining on the basis of their membership of political parties. This follows the decision in ASLEF UK where the European Court of Human Rights found that the unions' right to freedom of association had been infringed when a tribunal ruled that it could not expel one of its members because of his membership of the British National Party.
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