Draft legislation on increased unfair dismissal qualifying period

The Government has now published its draft legislation outlining the proposed increase in the qualifying period for unfair dismissal from one to two years under proposed changes to Employment Law.

The change will only affect those employees employed on or after 6 April 2012. The change is not retrospective so employees who started with an employer before this date will still be subject to a one year qualifying period.

The draft Regulations also increase the qualifying period that applies to employees’ right to receive a written statement of reasons for dismissal from an employer, on request. The current one year period will increase to a two year period, again this will not be retrospective and will only apply to employees employed on or after 6 April.