Government weighs offering HR vouchers to small businesses over employment rights changes
The government is weighing offering free HR advice to small businesses as it braces for the fallout from measures contained in its forthcoming Employment Rights Bill, City PM can reveal.
The Department of Business and Trade is understood to be considering a voucher scheme in which firms would be given time with HR specialists to help navigate the contractual changes employers may be forced to make as ministers seek to allay fears over the increased administrative burden.
The Employment Rights Bill, which is in the final stages of its passage through Parliament before becoming law, is set to introduce a host of new rules for how employees are treated including in areas such as zero hour contracts, flexible working, sick pay, unionisation and procedures for redundancy.
The flurry of fresh red tape has sparked concerns that employers will pause or pare back on hiring new staff as they wrestle with implementing the new rules.
More than half of retailers say the bill will lead to a reduction in staff numbers, while as many as seven in ten say the reforms will have a negative impact on their businesses, according to a survey of top firms by the British Retail Consortium, who warned the changes would limit the numbers of part-time job offerings which make up half the sector’s 3m-strong workforce.
A government spokesperson said in a statement: “This Government is delivering the biggest upgrade to workers’ rights in a generation through our Plan for Change, and our landmark Employment Rights Bill is set to benefit more than half of all workers in the UK.
“We will continue to work closely with employers to ensure new laws work for them while our Small Business Strategy is also taking action to give them the tools they need to grow.”