The Employment Relations Act 1999 follows from the 1998 Fairness at Work White Paper. It was the flagship for implementing the employment law and industrial relations policy of the government elected in 1997. Stephen Byers, as Secretary of State, DTI, said when the Act was a Bill that it is meant to be a once and for all job ("...... there will not be a continuous drip, drip of employment legislation throughout this Parliament. We have no plans to bring forward further measures"). This could be politely described as pious hope rather than statement of genuine intent as the Act provides for implementation of many important provisions by regulations. Perhaps Mr Byers had a definition of "legislation" which excludes "secondary legislation". In September 2000 he reconfirmed what has proved to be no more than wishful thinking "that no further changes are planned to employment law, following the recent fuel protests" (2000/09/19 - DTI "no more changes" Press Release ).

In the event, the reelection of the labour government at the 2001 General Election heralded extensive further employment law changes (see eg notes at Acts of Parliament etc/Employment Act 2002 ).

There is a dedicated DTI web site covering the Employment Act 2002. There is no point in duplicating its content here so this note highlights some random general points which may be of interest.

In summer 2002 the DTI announced a comprehensive government review of the Employment Relations Act 1999 (July 2002). The DTI published the findings of this review at end February 2003 (see notes at Dispute Resolution/review of the Employment Relations Act 1999 and 2003/02/27 - DTI Press Release re review findings). According to the foreword to the review its findings "..... show one thing more clearly than any other: despite predictions to the contrary the [1999 Employment Relations] Act has been a resounding success".

For more specific notes, including notes on commencement dates, go to other sub-headings under this head Acts of Parliament etc/Employment Relations Act 1999 .