Thank you to those constituents who have contacted me about the Employment Rights Bill. I appreciate your perspective regarding the Making Work Pay reforms. However, the Employment Rights Bill is already causing instability, uncertainty, and falling confidence, particularly amongst the 5.5m strong small business community.
To be clear, HM Opposition is pro-business and pro-worker. We know a strong, vibrant and confident economy is essential to a thriving society, not least in order to fund our public sector services and to support working people.
Whilst in office, the previous Government improved workers’ rights in several areas, including flexible working, parental leave, redundancy protections, ensuring that workers keep their tips as well as significant increases to the National Living Wage.
However, this legislation is being rushed through Parliament to meet a misguided promise from the Deputy Prime Minister to unions to introduce this legislation within one hundred days.
The Government claims that it has engaged in extensive consultations with businesses about these reforms, yet many business representatives have serious reservations about this Bill. The Federation of Small Businesses has stated that the Bill will “inevitably deter small employers from taking on new people,” describing it as “rushed, clumsy, chaotic, and poorly planned.”
Additionally, the Institute of Directors has reported that 57 per cent of its members would be less likely to hire staff, while the Confederation of British Industry has said that 54 per cent of businesses cannot afford the costs associated with this Bill. The Government’s own impact assessment suggests it could cost businesses up to £4.5 billion annually and could increase the number of strikes by 53 per cent.
My concern is this Bill will tie businesses up in red tape and means having to deal with a new regulator, the Fair Work Agency, which will have the power to enter any business premises, confiscate documents, levy fines and even creates new criminal offences with prison sentences of up to two years.
The public will pay the price – not just through uncollected waste, dysfunctional local government, and waves of low-threshold strike action, but also through higher taxes, lower wage growth and higher prices.
Taken together with measures announced in the budget which will increases taxes on jobs, some estimates show around 100,000 jobs will be lost in the UK in the coming months and years.
Along with my colleagues, I urge the Government to withdraw this Bill, consult properly, and work with HM Opposition to ensure that the economy and business, particularly SME’s, are not adversely impacted by these sweeping changes.
