HR
professionals believe complex employment legislation is hindering UK
productivity, according to a CIPD report launched today.
Three-quarters
of those surveyed feel employment legislation is not clear enough while almost
half believe there is insufficient guidance.
Geoff
Armstrong, director general at the CIPD, said: “We believe government
departments should give more consideration to alternatives to state regulation
to meet employment policy objectives. And to think about how we can reduce the
pressures on business, without reducing minimum standards for employees. This
may give a respite to people management specialists who report disillusionment
in particular with the volume and clarity of laws across the field of
employment.”
The
poll of 800 HR professionals shows employment legislation has the biggest
influence on the profession with the Working Time Directive is the most
difficult piece of legislation to implement.
Armstrong
continued: “ A key question is whether each piece of legislation is a
proportionate response to the issue being addressed. In addition, each new
regulation should be looked at in relation to all the others that have preceded
it. Coherent regulation that can be communicated simply, understood and applied
has to be the aim.”
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He
said that the CIPD had welcomed some employment legislation, such as the
Employment Bill. But he argued that the
primary aim must be to maintain the UK’s competitiveness and that a more
sensible joined-up approach was needed.
