The Employment Protection (Continuity of Employment) Regulations 1996

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations, which come into force on 13th January 1997, replace the Employment Protection (Continuity of Employment) Regulations 1993 (“the 1993 Regulations”) and repeat their effect with certain additions.

The 1993 Regulations provided for the preservation of continuity of employment for the purposes of employment protection rights now contained in the Employment Rights Act 1996 (“the 1996 Act”) where a dismissed employee was reinstated or re-engaged in consequence of—

(a) the making of a complaint of unfair dismissal under the 1996 Act;

(b) the making of a complaint under the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 (1975 c. 65) or the Race Relations Act 1976 (1976 c. 74) arising out of a dismissal;

(c) action taken by a conciliation officer under the conciliation powers relevant to such complaints;

(d) the making of a compromise contract as permitted in relation to such complaints; and

(e) the making of a claim in accordance with a dismissal procedures agreement designated by an order under the 1996 Act.

The 1993 Regulations also provided that continuity of employment was not broken in redundancy cases where any such employee repaid a redundancy payment or equivalent payment.

The additional provisions in these regulations have the effect of preserving continuity of employment for the purpose of the employment protection rights contained in the 1996 Act where a dismissed employee is reinstated or re-engaged in consequence of—

(a) the making of a complaint under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (1995 c. 50) arising out of a dismissal,

(b) action by a conciliation officer under the conciliation powers which apply in relation to such a complaint (all the conciliation powers of such officers are now consolidated in section 18 of the Industrial Tribunals Act 1996 (1996 c. 17)), or

(c) the making of a compromise contract as permitted in relation to such a complaint.

The expressions “relevant complaint of dismissal” and “relevant compromise contract” mentioned in paragraphs (b) and (d) of regulation 2 are defined, respectively, in section 219(3) and (4) of the 1996 Act.