Employment Regulation: New Report

The Better Regulation Task Force (a part of the Cabinet Office) has issued a report calling for reforms to the system of implementing employment legislation, referring to the unreasonable demands the method of regulation imposes on small and medium size employers.

Its recommendations include:
• commencement dates for new legislation be grouped together, so that various Acts / SIs take effect on the same date (perhaps once or twice a year), rather than at scattered intervals during the year;
• further research on the effect of employment legislation: in particular, its indirect effects on unemployment rates and investment, and degrees of awareness / penetration amongst workers;
• 'stress tests' for new legislation, to see which sectors of industry it might have the most effect on;
• a free interactive CD-ROM on employment rights, to be given to all employers (and updated regularly - either over the net, or by post once a year)
• a free or subsidised ACAS mediation service for businesses with less than 50 employees;
• free access to ACAS seminars for employers with less than 5 employees.

Click here to see the Report (Adobe Acrobat required).