The Recruitment and Employment Confederation has issued an ‘urgent warning’ over the Employment Rights Bill in response to what it describes as ‘recruiter alarm’ over potential damage to the UK jobs market.
As key consultations on the Employment Rights Bill draw to a close, the REC warned that the Bill was “undercooked” and needed changing.
The comments followed a warning earlier this week from the Employment Lawyers Association that the Bill could “swamp business”.
Shazia Ejaz, REC director of campaigns and research, said: “At a time when our research shows that the flexible labour market really works for Britain, especially when times are uncertain, it is worrying that some of these proposed changes put those benefits at risk for both businesses and workers.
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“Recruiters across the country are keen to work with the government to protect our jobs market, but this Bill is undercooked.”
On the question of zero-hours contracts, the REC said it appreciated the need for greater protections for directly employed workers but applying it to temps working through agencies was unnecessary given their separate framework of rights under the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Business Regulations 2003 and the Agency Workers Regulations. Agency workers should thus be exempted from the new rules.
Shazia Ejaz said: “The plans are using a hammer to crack a nut. Agency workers are well protected by law already and choose to work flexibly.” He added that the fears of workers’ rights campaigners over a loophole created by such a carve-out for agency workers were exaggerated, as businesses still needed to maintain a pool of directly engaged staff to effectively manage their resources and staff workloads.
On strengthening statutory sick pay, the REC said it was concerned that the burden of increased costs would land at agencies’ doors, not end hirers, given their ongoing struggles to reclaim SSP from client businesses.
“Small businesses would bear a disproportionate cost burden, with 60% of new SSP costs falling on them. We urge the government to set the rate of SSP at a level that encourages employers to retain staff, rather than having to move swiftly to capability-based dismissal,” said Ejaz.
The REC said it strongly supported the government’s stance on fire and rehire but had concerns about the method and detail of the proposals. Ejaz said: “It is important that dismissal and re-engagement remains available in some way as a necessary tool for businesses. The government should focus on strengthening the existing Code of Practice rather than pushing through rigid primary legislation that could present a higher bar to essential business restructuring than they intend.”
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