Chapter Updates

OCTOBER 2005

Statutory Amendments

1. Further support for employees involved in a transfer of undertaking came into force on the 6th April 2005 by virtue of the Transfer of Undertakings (Pension Protection) Regulations 2005 (SI2005/649). As a result employees who were members of an occupational scheme prior to the TUPE Transfer must be provided with a pension scheme by their new employer.

2. The Gender Recognition Act 2004 which came into effect in April 2005 removes reliance on the “genuine occupational qualification” defence under the Sex Discrimination Act 1975, where a transsexual has obtained legal recognition of their acquired gender. In effect in the case of a transsexual, an employer can no longer rely on this defence by stating that a job must be performed by someone of a particular sex.

3.The following sections of the Employment Relations Act 2004, came into force from the 6th April 2005:- the statutory procedure for recognition & derecognition of trade unions by employers for the purposes of collective bargaining; the extension from 8 to 12 weeks as the protected period for automatically unfair dismissals, where the employee is taking part in a lawfully organised official industrial action; further protection for employees not be dismissed or treated detrimentally because he or she is on jury service.

4. The Equality Bill which establishes a Commission for Equality in human rights was reintroduced into the House of Lords in June 2005.

5. The proposed amendments to the Sex Discrimination Act which will expressly prohibit sexual harassment and sex- based harassment came into force on the 1st October 2005. It is intended that establishing harassment will not involve a `like with like’ comparison.