According to information obtained by the Financial Times, the Government is now proposing, under its plans to introduce “Day One” unfair dismissal rights in its forthcoming Employment Rights Bill, to allow employers to keep new hires on probation for up to six months.
In and of itself, this development is no particular surprise. You may recall that Labour’s pre-election pledge to make unfair dismissal a “Day One” right made specific mention of a role for probationary periods. A period of six months is generally in line with what many contracts of employment already have in place for new hires. What we don’t yet know is exactly how an employer’s ability to stipulate a six-month probationary period will dovetail with, and potentially limit, unfair dismissal as a “Day One” right.
Will there be some sort of minimum ACAS-type procedure employers will be able to follow for dismissals during probationary periods, which will give them a “get out of jail free” card? Or will there be a statutory defence for dismissals, on certain specified grounds, during the six month probationary period?
The devil will, as ever, be in the detail – and we don’t have that detail yet.
However, we are now fast approaching the end of the government’s self-imposed 100 day deadline to bring forward the draft Employment Rights Bill. These questions and others are likely to be answered soon so keep a lookout for further updates in due course.