Press Release: Urgent action needed before Employment Rights Bill reaches Royal Assent

The Association of Professional Staffing Companies (APSCo) has warned Peers of urgent amendments needed to the Employment Rights Bill which must be addressed before it reaches Royal Assent.

With the Bill going into House of Lords Committee stage review this week, APSCo has issued a new briefing to Ministers and other key influencers in the upper house calling for further amendments to the details in the Employment Rights Bill which it believes could be damaging to businesses. These include:

• Delaying the decision on the ‘guaranteed hours offer’ extension for “agency workers” until the scope of this is defined – following a consultation – in a clear and narrow way.
• Removing higher paid and higher skilled contractors from the scope of the guaranteed hours provisions in Schedule 1 in the Bill, based on rates of pay that are above an agreed multiple of the National Minimum Wage.
• Addressing the limited capacity of the tribunal services which is already struggling with current demand. APSCo recommends reforms of the court system and an investment in small claims procedures for employment matters to mitigate against this issue.
• Increasing the Initial Period of Employment length for day one rights to 9 – 12 months.
• Maintaining the existing waiting period of three days for Statutory Sick Pay.

Tania Bowers, Global Public Policy Director at APSCo comments:

“The Employment Rights Bill is being fast-tracked through Parliament, but the scrutiny it has faced has to be acknowledged and addressed before it reaches Royal Assent. Appropriate worker protections and economic growth need to go hand-in-hand.  APSCo and its members are concerned that too much of the detail of the Employment Rights Bill is currently left to secondary regulations, which will mean that the impact assessments on the provisions are woefully inadequate prior to them passing into primary law.

 

“The current one-size-fits-all approach leans too far in the direction of protecting the relatively small segment of the labour market identified by the Government as on exploitative contracts and risks unintended negative consequences on the broader labour market, such as employers taking risk adverse hiring decisions and considering alternatives to hiring, such as more reliance on technology or offshoring. We support the Government’s decision to take a firmer stance on protecting workers’ rights. The delivery so far, though, hasn’t been ideal. The Government is looking to make its mark and deliver against promises quickly, but speed without appropriate due diligence will leave UK businesses and recruiters with an employment legislation landscape that simply isn’t conducive to corporate or economic growth.”

Press Release written by Vickie Collinge, BlueSky PR

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Vickie Collinge

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