The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) is urging the Government to address significant concerns about its Employment Rights Bill which have been laid bare in a report from the official policy watchdog, the Regulatory Policy Committee (RPC).
The RPC has judged that eight of the 23 individual impact assessments (IAs) for the legislation, including some of its biggest measures, were not fit for purpose.
Responding to the findings, Tina McKenzie, Policy Chair of FSB, said:
“The RPC’s findings support the concerns that FSB has been raising about the disproportionate impacts on small employers. Red rating after red rating demonstrates that the proposed legislation has simply not been thought through.
“This is a sharp wake-up call for Ministers who must think again about the dangers of a cavalier approach to jobs and work. The country cannot afford to pile further cost and risk on to small employers based on such an overwhelmingly weak evidence base.
“With the red-flagged impact assessments including high-impact measures like formal dismissal from day one, the Government must urgently do the basic work required to understand the impact of its own policies and accurately quantify the likely impacts on employers and the labour market.
“Parliament must step up and make sure it is challenging Ministers’ approach to such consequential legislation. Jobs, wages and living standards will suffer if Government fails to bring forward sensible policy or do the work to understand how and to what extent it is making employment harder and harder to provide.”
