Staff and employers in shared and serviced offices may well be confused as to whether or not the qualifying time period in which employees are able to bring a claim for unfair dismissal will in fact be extended or not.
Today the government announced that it was a drafting error which said the period would be changed from one year to two and in reality the decision has not been made yet.
Consultation was undertaken in the spring about this measure and that consultation is still being reviewed before a decision can be made.
Trade unions had reacted angrily to the news, but the Department for Business will re-issue the document at a later stage.
The Statement on New Regulation is part of the government’s One-in One-out policy which is aimed at reducing centralised regulation from Whitehall.
A spokesperson for the Department of Business told HR Magazine: “We can confirm that there was a drafting error in the Second Statement of New Regulation. No final decision has been taken to increase the unfair dismissal qualifying period.”