§ Mr. Spellerasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will take steps to amend or repeal those sections of the Employment Protection Act which are a disincentive to employers, especially those in small businesses, from taking on new staff.
§ Mr. PriorI have set in hand a review of the provisions of the Employment Protection Act with this in mind, and will be entering into consultations in due course. There are, however, two provisions which have been the subject of many representations by employers as constituting an unreasonable burden, particularly on small employers, and a disincentive to recruitment, and which could both be amended without primary legislation. The first provision is the qualifying period of 26 weeks' service at present set for complaints of unfair dismissal, and the second is the requirement of 60 days for196W notification to my Department and also for consultation with the trade unions on redundancies of between 10 and 99 people.
The Government believe that there is a strong case for extending the qualifying period of service for complaints of unfair dismissal from 26 weeks to 52 weeks. There is also a case for extending the period to 104 weeks for employees under 18. A year is a much more reasonable period within which an employer can assess the suitability of a new employee, and the longer period for employees under 18 would mean that employers can take on young people without worry.
There is also good reason to believe that a 30-day rather than a 60-day period of consultation and notice of redundancies of less than 100 employees would be a more practicable and realistic requirement on small firms. We are consulting the CBI, TUC and other appropriate organisations on these two proposed changes.