Tackling employment law red tape
Ministers urge businesses to help tackle employment law, bureaucracy and red tape in the latest phase of the Employment Law Review.
For the next three weeks the Red Tape Challenge will focus on more than 160 different cross-Government employment related regulations that businesses have to deal with.
The campaign asks how regulations can be improved, simplified or even abolished, whilst also ensuring that the current standard of employment rights for employees are maintained.
Business Minister David Willetts said:
“Businesses regularly tell us that the burden of regulation is too high. So today we are giving them a chance to tell us exactly which rules they think need to be reformed.”
So they are fit for purpose and easier for businesses to understand, examples of regulations you can comment on include:
- Rules on collective redundancies.
- Employment agencies.
- Immigration checks.
- The National Minimum Wage.
- Statutory sick pay.
Employment Relations Minister Edward Davey said:
“We often hear from businesses that employment related regulation holds them back from growing their firms and employing more people.
“Whether it is the filling out of endless forms when you hire your first member of staff, the complexities of letting somebody go, or simply manage staff on a day-to-day basis, we want to review these regulations with the aim of giving business more confidence in employing people and creating more jobs.
The Employment Law Review is a Parliament long review looking at all aspects of employment law.
A discussion paper, entitled ‘Flexible, effective, fair: Promoting economic growth through a strong and efficient labour market,’ has also been published today. This paper sets out the principles that are guiding our approach to reform of the labour market framework along with a number of thematic questions.
Edward Davey added: “We are determined to tackle unnecessary, burdensome red tape that harms job creation and means employers spend less time running their business.
“But this does not mean this will result in a watering down of employee rights. Today we are launching a real debate with employers and employees, to listen to their thoughts and act on what regulations can be simplified, merged and abolished. This is your time to get involved and have your say on your employment law bugbears.”
The Government will publish the results of the employment related law Red Tape Challenge theme later this year.