Joe Robertson Highlights Impact of Employment Rights Bill on Small Businesses
Joe Robertson MP recently spoke in the Employment Rights Bill debate, urging the Government to consider the potential unequal effects of the proposed legislation on small businesses. While he acknowledged the bill’s positive intentions to improve worker protections, he raised serious concerns about its impact on small employers and the social care sector.
The Employment Rights Bill proposes several significant changes aimed at strengthening worker rights, including:
- Early protection from unfair dismissal in the employment relationship
- Restrictions on zero-hours contracts
- A legally binding mechanism to enforce minimum pay, terms, and conditions
While supportive of the bill's focus on improving conditions for workers, Robertson voiced his concern over the Government’s analysis, which acknowledges an increase in costs for employers due to new requirements. Specifically, he pointed to the imposition of statutory sick pay from day one and the introduction of a statutory probation period for dismissals, which he warned could have unintended consequences for smaller businesses.
Newly elected onto the Health and Social Care Committee, Joe Robertson said, "The Government has accepted in its analysis that the bill will increase costs for employers, due to their confusing concept of a statutory probation period for dismissals and imposing statutory sick pay on small employers from day one. For small employers, the cost implications may impact their decisions to hire, reduce incentives to grow and ultimately harm economic growth which is bad for workers. Not only has the government failed to address how they will mitigate these costs, but they have also failed to address the affect of the bill on the social care sector and who will have to absorb the additional costs - whether this be the local providers or the local council. Social care cannot absorb any more costs without the promised funding reform coming first.
I have urged the Government to pause the bill and look at it again, to remove the onerous content, which threatens growth and to put appropriate mitigation in place before bringing it back into law."
Robertson concluded by urging the Government to pause and reassess the bill, recommending that it be revised to remove excessive requirements that could hinder business growth. He called for the implementation of robust mitigation measures to protect small businesses and ensure that the reforms achieve their intended goals without unintended negative consequences for employers and the broader economy.
Please see Joe Robertson's full speech here.
