UK Employment Law update: need to revise contracts?

This morning I enjoyed a good breakfast and listened to the team from Wansbroughs Solicitors (Devizes and Melksham) giving a concise and helpful update on changes to employment law.

What seemed most significant to me were:

• Changes to the law concerning how employers should handle discipline and grievances. These are no longer governed by statutory procedures, but by changed codes of practice issues by ACAS. This means that employers need to review their discipline and grievance procedures.
  
• Being phased in from 6th April 2010 for businesses with more than 250 employees, and then to all businesses from April 2011, is an employee's right to take off (unpaid) time to train. This needs to being benefit to the business and the employee's work for that business, and could be anything from a short course to several years for a degree. There are circumstances under which an employer can refuse.

Other areas covered were redundancy, equality legislation, paternity leave, and parental leave.

For more info contact Tim Prees at Wansbroughs, and sign up for their excellent occasional newsletter which gives updates on employment law.