A professional body for employment lawyers has told the government that its Employment Rights Bill, without amendments, would ‘swamp business’ and may not even achieve better conditions for workers.
The Employment Lawyers Association (ELA) said bans on exploitative zero-hour contracts risked being “so difficult to navigate that this may well impact their ability to be enforced”, and that there were real concerns about how seasonal businesses would cope.
Business bodies have warned for weeks that the proposals, in their original form, would make it more difficult to hire staff, and could threaten business growth.
Kathleen Healy, the deputy chairwoman of the ELA, said: “Government has been keen to stress that the intention of the proposed reforms is to have a positive impact on both business and employees. However, more work needs to be done to ensure the new rules are easy to understand and enforce and that they do not result in potentially contradictory obligations for employers or leave employees losing out.”
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The ELA queried the scope of the new Fair Work Agency, questioning whether it would truly have the powers to alleviate pressure on tribunals.
It warned that employment tribunal cases could soar, particularly as last week the government put forward amendments to the bill which would increase the amount of time workers have to bring an employment tribunal claim from three to six months.
The ELA said: “The tribunal cannot deal with the work that it has. It will be less able to deal with the work that is produced by this act without considerable increase in its judicial capacity.”
The lawyers’ body also criticised provisions within the Bill for reasonable notice of shifts. It said that it was unlikely that anyone would pursue claims for last-minute changes to shifts, which would only result in about £70 compensation and take up to two years to resolve.
The association said: “Lawyers are expensive both for workers and for businesses. The transactional cost of enforcing rights is often not worth the expense of doing so. A net £70 for a cancelled shift? Who is going to bother enforcing that?”
The government’s independent Regulatory Policy Committee warned last week that eight of the 23 impact assessments of the Bill were not fit for purpose.
The committee wrote: “Given the number and reach of the proposals, it would be proportionate for the impact assessments to include labour market and broader macro-economic analysis to understand the overall impact on employment, wages and output, and particularly the pass-through of employer costs to employees and other dynamic impacts.”
A government spokesman said: “It’s important our Employment Rights Bill works for both workers and their employers, which is exactly why we will continue to consult with both sides and industry experts to get the balance right.
“We will ensure employment tribunals have the resources they need so workers can uphold their rights and will also create the new Fair Work Agency to take on enforcement responsibility for policies such as holiday pay, so we alleviate pressure on tribunals.”
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