Confused by Employment Law

16-02-2007

Recent figures released by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) show that small businesses in the North of Ireland and throughout the UK are facing a growing headache because of the complexity of employment law.

"The average small business owner in Northern Ireland spends 28 hours per month filling in forms for government," said FSB policy chairman Wilfred Mitchell.

The FSB provides a free legal helpline for its members to call when they have queries about employment legislation. The helpline saw an overall rise in the number of calls of 8% in 2006 with more than 76,000 calls coming in last year at an average rate of more than 200 per day.

The main areas of concern, that have seen large increases since 2005, were:

• Age Discrimination - up 664%;
• Information and Consultation - up 439%;
• Part Time Workers - up 68%;
• Pensions - up 23%;
• Retirement - up 88%; and
• Other forms of discrimination such as on religious or sexual orientation grounds up by 92% and 56% respectively.

The rise in queries on discrimination topics is due to new or proposed legislation on age, religion and sexual orientation, and the increase in questions on pensions and retirement is down to proposed moves by the British government to act on pension provision for all workers.

More calls have come in regarding information and consultation due to changes in flexible working and age discrimination rules, requiring firms to inform and consult their workers on these issues.

Part-time workers questions have largely been attributed to the proposed changes in annual leave arrangements and uncertainty over the Working Time Directive towards the end of 2006.

"Employment law is vital to ensure that both employers and employees know where they stand and to protect both parties as they carry out their work," said Mitchell, "However, the complexity of these laws is placing an intolerable burden on smaller firms who are not big enough to have their own HR Department. Small businesses employ over half the private sector workforce, some 12 million people in the UK. Reducing the burden of red tape on small businesses will allow them to increase their activity and the number of people they employ – leading to a boost for both owners and workers."

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