Employment Relations Bill

Employment Relations Bill - continued	House of Lords

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	Leave for family and domestic reasons
Maternity and parental leave.	7. The provisions set out in Part I of Schedule 4 shall be substituted for Part VIII of the Employment Rights Act 1996.
Time off for domestic incidents.	8. The provisions set out in Part II of Schedule 4 shall be inserted after section 57 of that Act.
Consequential amendments.	9. Part III of Schedule 4 (which makes amendments consequential on sections 7 and 8) shall have effect.
	Disciplinary and grievance hearings
Right to be accompanied.	10. - (1) This section applies where a worker-
	(a) is required or invited by his employer to attend a disciplinary or grievance hearing, and
	(b) the worker reasonably requests to be accompanied at the hearing.
	(2) Where this section applies the employer must permit the worker to be accompanied at the hearing by a single companion who-
	(a) is chosen by the worker and is within subsection (3),
	(b) is to be permitted to address the hearing (but not to answer questions on behalf of the worker), and
	(c) is to be permitted to confer with the worker during the hearing.
	(3) A person is within this subsection if he is-
	(a) employed by a trade union of which he is an official within the meaning of sections 1 and 119 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992,
	(b) an official of a trade union (within that meaning) who has been certified in writing by the union as competent to act for the purposes of this section, or
	(c) another of the employer's workers.
	(4) If-
	(a) a worker has a right under this section to be accompanied at a hearing,
	(b) his chosen companion will not be available at the time proposed for the hearing by the employer, and
	(c) the worker proposes an alternative time which satisfies subsection (5),
	the employer must postpone the hearing to the time proposed by the worker.
	(5) An alternative time must-
	(a) be reasonable, and
	(b) fall before the end of the period of five working days beginning with the first working day after the day proposed by the employer.
	(6) An employer shall permit a worker to take time off during working hours for the purpose of accompanying another of the employer's workers in accordance with a request under subsection (1)(b).
	(7) Sections 168(3) and (4), 169 and 171 to 173 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 (time off for carrying out trade union duties) shall apply in relation to subsection (6) above as they apply in relation to section 168(1) of that Act.
Complaint to employment tribunal.	11. - (1) A worker may present a complaint to an employment tribunal that his employer has failed, or threatened to fail, to comply with section 10(2) or (4).
	(2) A tribunal shall not consider a complaint under this section in relation to a failure or threat unless the complaint is presented-
	(a) before the end of the period of three months beginning with the date of the failure or threat, or
	(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 a tribunal finds that a complaint under this section is well-founded it shall order the employer to pay compensation to the worker of an amount not exceeding two weeks' pay.
	(4) Chapter II of Part XIV of the Employment Rights Act 1996 (calculation of a week's pay) shall apply for the purposes of subsection (3); and in applying that Chapter the calculation date shall be taken to be-
	(a) in the case of a claim which is made in the course of a claim for unfair dismissal, the date on which the employer's notice of dismissal was given or, if there was no notice, the effective date of termination, and
	(b) in any other case, the date on which the relevant hearing took place (or was to have taken place).
	(5) The limit in section 227(1) of the Employment Rights Act 1996 (maximum amount of week's pay) shall apply for the purposes of subsection (3) above.
	(6) No award shall be made under subsection (3) in respect of a claim which is made in the course of a claim for unfair dismissal if the tribunal makes a supplementary award under section 127A(2) of the Employment Rights Act 1996 (internal appeal procedures).

Prepared 9 July 1999