Employers ill-equipped to deal with Employment Act

Only
15 per cent of employers are prepared for the impact of the Employment Act
introduced this week.

A
poll of 75 large employers by Henley Management College shows that firms are
not ready for key employment changes, including equal pay questionnaires and
the right for parents with children under six to request flexible working.

Peter
Thomson, director of the Future Work Forum, said: "Companies that haven’t
prepared will not know how to handle a request and run the risk of ending up in
front of an Employment Tribunal."

"There
is likely to be a problem of setting a precedent by having one manager approve
a new work pattern which is then requested elsewhere in the organisation. Also
there will be requests coming from people with older children, or none at all,
and managers need to know how to handle these.

"It
is a great opportunity to introduce flexible working for the benefit of the
individual and the organisation. It is a win-win scenario if applied in a
planned way and it’s a potential disaster if not."

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www.henleymc.ac.uk

By Paul Nelson