The Queen`s Speech identifies employment law proposals

In addition to the new 5p charge for plastic bags, the Queen`s Speech published on 4 June 2014 identified the following proposals:-

• In response to 3,000 highly-paid NHS executives taking redundancy payments only to get new NHS jobs afterwards, measures will limit excessive redundancy payments across the public sector.
• Legislation will impose higher penalties on employers who fail to pay their staff the minimum wage.

• The legislation will also reduce delays in employment tribunals (although since delays have been reduced considerably by the introduction of tribunal fees, it`s not clear what this refers to). 
• Measures will also be brought forward to tackle abuse of zero-hours contracts.

We will keep you updated on what these proposals will mean in practice.