Business secretary Grant Shapps launched a 12-week consultation this week on the draft code of practice on dismissal and re-engagement, due to close on 18 April. The government agreed to introduce the code following P&O Ferries’ sacking of 786 seafarers last year.
The code explicitly states employers must not use threats of dismissal to pressurise employees into accepting new terms, and must consult with employees in a ‘fair and transparent’ way when proposing changes to terms and conditions.
Once in force, courts and employment tribunals will be able to take the code into account when considering unfair dismissal and other relevant cases, and will have powers to apply a 25% uplift to an employee’s compensation where an employer is found not to have complied with the code.
Shapps said the threat of fire and rehire was ‘a quick-fire way to damage your reputation as a business’. View the draft code here.
