The House of Lords has approved the Government’s plans for employee shareholders. New employee shareholder contracts will be created under which individuals can receive shares from their employer of between £2,000 and £5,000, exempt from capital gains tax, in return for giving up certain employment law rights.
These rights include the right not to be unfairly dismissed (except in health and safety cases, automatically unfair cases or cases where the dismissal is discriminatory under the Equality Act 2010), the right to a statutory redundancy payment and certain statutory rights to request flexible working and time off for training.
The Government has stated its intended implementation date of 1 September 2013.
