Employment Policy (Hansard, 16 March 1994)

§ Mr. Michael Forsyth

All actions, decisions or legal instruments by Government Departments are in principle subject to judicial review. The EC Commission may bring infraction proceedings under article 169 of the EC treaty where it believes the legislation of a member state is inconsistent with EC law. A member state may also bring proceedings in the European Court of Justice to challenge the legal basis on which EC directives or other instruments have been adopted.

My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State is responsible for two areas of employment law which are currently subject to judicial review or infraction proceedings:

(i) The Unfair Dismissal (Variation of Qualifying Period) Order 1985, which introduced the two-year qualifying period for unfair dismissal, is being challenged as constituting indirect sex discrimination in the case of R. v. Secretary of State for Employment ex parte Smith and Perez;
(ii) proceedings against the United Kingdom under article 169 of the EC treaty, in respect of the acquired rights and collective redundancies directive, are currently before the European Court of Justice, where the outstanding issue is whether the United Kingdom must specifically provide for employee representatives for the purpose of consultation.

The United Kingdom has initiated proceedings in the European Court of Justice to challenge the health and safety legal basis of the recently adopted directive on working time.