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Employment Retention Bill


Employment Retention Bill

1

 

A

Bill

To

Make provision for a statutory right to an employment retention assessment

to determine entitlement to a period of rehabilitation leave for newly disabled

people and people whose existing impairments change; and for connected

purposes. 

Be it enacted by the Queen’s most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and

consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present

Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—

1       

Employment retention

(1)   

The Employment Rights Act 1996 (c. 18) is amended as follows.

(2)   

After Part 8A there is inserted—

“Part 8B

Employment retention

5

80J     

Employment retention assessment

(1)   

The Secretary of State shall make regulations—

(a)   

entitling a disabled employee who satisfies specified conditions

to  an employment retention assessment;

(b)   

prescribing the nature of the employment retention assessment.

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(2)   

This assessment must be carried out by a health care professional

approved  by the Secretary of State.

80K     

Entitlement to rehabilitation leave

(1)   

The Secretary of State shall make regulations specifying the conditions

under which a disabled employee, who has been assessed under

15

section 80J, may be absent from work on rehabilitation leave under this

section for the purposes of—

(a)   

rehabilitation;

(b)   

re-training; and

 

Bill 60                                                                                                 

54/3

 
 

Employment Retention Bill

2

 

(c)   

enabling his employer to make reasonable adjustments to

working conditions and arrangements.

(2)   

Regulations under subsection (1) shall include provision for

determining—

(a)   

the extent of a disabled employee's entitlement to leave under

5

this section; and

(b)   

when leave under this section may be taken.

80L     

Rights during and after rehabilitation leave

An employee who is absent from work during a period of rehabilitation  

leave under section 80K—

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(a)   

is entitled, for such purposes and to such extent as may be

prescribed, to the benefits of the terms and conditions which

would have been applied, if he had not been absent;

(b)   

is bound, for such purposes and to such extent as may be

prescribed, by obligations arising under those terms and

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conditions (except in so far as they are inconsistent with section

80K); and

(c)   

is entitled to return from leave to a job of a kind prescribed by

regulations.

80M     

Complaint to employment tribunal

20

(1)   

A disabled employee may present a complaint to an employment

tribunal that his employer—

(a)   

has unreasonably postponed a period of rehabilitation leave

requested by the employee; or

(b)   

has prevented or attempted to prevent the employee from

25

taking rehabilitation leave.

(2)   

An employment tribunal shall not consider a complaint under this

section unless it is presented—

(a)   

before the end of the period of three months beginning with the

date (or last date) of the matters complained of; or

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(b)   

within such further period as the tribunal considers reasonable

in a case where it is satisfied that it was not reasonably

practicable for the complaint to be presented before the end of

that period of three months.

(3)   

Where an employment tribunal finds a complaint under this section

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well founded it—

(a)   

shall make a declaration to that effect; and

(b)   

may make an award of compensation to be paid by the

employer to the employee.

(4)   

The amount of compensation shall be such as the tribunal considers just

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and equitable in all the circumstances having regard to—

(a)   

the employer’s behaviour; and

(b)   

any loss sustained by the employee which is attributable to the

matters complained of.

80N     

Interpretation

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For the purposes of this Part—

 
 

Employment Retention Bill

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“disabled employee” means an employee who has a disability, as

defined in section 1(1) of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995

(c. 50);

“employment retention assessment” has the same meaning as

“work-focused health-related assessment” in the Welfare

5

Reform Act 2007 (c. 5);

“health care professional” has the same meaning as in the Welfare

Reform Act 2007.”

(3)   

In section 236(3), after “80G,” insert “80J(1), 80K”.

2       

Short title and commencement

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(1)   

This Act may be cited as the Employment Retention Act 2008.

(2)   

This Act (apart from this section) comes into force on such day as the Secretary

of State may appoint by order made by statutory instrument, and different

days may be appointed for different provisions or for different purposes.

(3)   

An order under subsection (2) may contain transitional provisions and savings

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relating to the provisions being brought into force by the order.

 
 

 
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Revised 26 February 2008