Coalition Floats its Employers' Charter

The newspapers today carry details of the Government's plans to relax key elements of employment legislation in a bid to encourage economic growth.

Although no timeframe has been given for their implementation, key proposals include:

• Raising from one year to two years the qualifying period of employment before an employee can bring a claim of unfair dismissal. The present qualifying period of one year was introduced in June 1999. Prior to that date, an employee had to be employed for two years before being able to claim unfair dismissal.
• With a view to reducing the number of vexatious allegations, workers will face a fee when lodging an employment tribunal claim.
• Small companies may be excluded from some of the more onerous employment regulations (it remains to be seen what these are).
• The length of time that firms have to pay statutory sick pay to employees is set to be reduced.

Interesting stuff - and certain to encourage debate (see, for example, the reader comments on the The Daily Telegraph's website. At the time of posting, a comment thread hasn't appeared on The Guardian's website - we're betting it'll be feisty!).