A survey carried out in England and Wales has shown that almost 75% of HR professionals believe that employment is “excessively regulated” – with more than half saying that simplifying this area of law should be a high priority for a new Government.
Dawn Dickson, Partner, maintains that while all of the main parties propose a different approach to employment law they should all share one thing in common.
She said: “This is an area of legislation which has exploded over the past two decades. In truth, the rate of legislation and change has been so rapid that businesses – even large ones – can struggle to keep up and smaller businesses find it an increasing burden.
“I would urge that whoever wins the election should stop, think, and listen before embarking on any new course of action.”
She stressed that all parties had manifesto commitments in this area, with several key differences. Employment law has a big potential impact on all of our lives.
Dawn said: “When voters mark their cross on May 6th, they will perhaps be motivated by the future of the NHS, defence, immigration or education, rather than what’s in store for employment policy. But, employment policy has a significant impact on a large majority of us…
“So what are the main differences between the parties?
“Labour would continue to build on 13 years of employment legislation, and protection of workers. They’ll implement the Agency Workers Regulations 2010 and push on with the Equality Act. They’ll introduce new rules regarding fathers/partners taking transferable paternity leave and pay for babies due on or after 3 April 2011.
“They’ll remain in the EU and therefore will implement employment legislation from the EU.
“The Liberal Democrats will also introduce sunset clauses, stop gold plating EU regulation, extend right to work flexibly to all employees, not just parents. They will replace maternity leave with a single system of parental leave which the parents can share between them in any way that suits (e.g. both parents could take 6 months leave at the same time, provided the woman took the first two weeks of leave), and they would want equal pay audits for companies with more than 100 employees.”
So what’s Dawn’s advice to voters? “I would suggest that before putting that cross in the box you make sure you know what is planned in terms of the laws that govern us in our day to day working lives. After all, that is a big part of our everyday lives.”
