Legislation coming into force on 6 April 2007 -  a summary

Subject

Development

Parts of the Equality Act 2006

The definition of ‘religion or belief’ contained in the Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003 will be extended so that it covers the situation where an employee has ‘a lack of’ religion or belief.

Information and Consultation of Employees Regulations 2004

The Regulations will be extended to cover employers with 100 or more employees.

Occupational Pension Schemes (Consultation by Employers and Miscellaneous Amendment) Regulations 2006

Occupational Pension Schemes (Consultation by Employers) (Modification for Multi-employer Schemes) Regulations 2006

These Regulations will be extended to cover undertakings with more than 100 employees.

Employment Act 2002

The jurisdictions affected by the statutory dispute resolution procedures will be extended by adding the following pieces of legislation to Schedules 3, 4 and 5 of the Employment Act 2002:

(a) Regulation 45 of the European Public Limited-Liability Company Regulations 2004;

(b) Regulation 33 of the Information and Consultation of Employees Regulations 2004; and

(c) Regulation 17 and Schedule to the Occupational and Personal Pension Schemes (Consultation by Employers and Miscellaneous Amendment) Regulations 2006

Flexible Working (Eligibility, Complaints and Remedies) (Amendment) Regulations 2006

The right to request flexible working scheme will be extended to certain carers of adults (we will be posting a separate update on this topic shortly).