Examination of Witnesses

Part of Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 4:45 pm on 19 June 2012.

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Michael Reed: What employers or employees perceive about employment law is one thing, but I would hope that both groups’ perceptions are based on reality. The reality is that if you take on a new member of staff, you will not have to worry about any unfair dismissal claims for two years. After the two years, if you want to dismiss an employee for misconduct, you will have to honestly believe that they did it; you will have to have some reason for believing that; you will have to have carried out a reasonable investigation into that misconduct; and you will have to give the employee—after all, they have worked for you for two years—a chance to respond to the allegations and to say what they want to say. I do not think that that is an arduous burden to put on an employer.

If you go to a tribunal, the tribunal will take account of your size and resources, and often, if you are a small employer, those issues will be decisive when the tribunal decides whether you have acted reasonably. If we are saying that employers believe that the law is something different from that, the way of addressing their perceptions  about it is through education, rather than through changing the law on the principle that their perception of it is wrong. If their perception of it is wrong, it does not help to change the law to something else.