Facilities Management Association

Just preceding the general election campaign, the Forum of Private Business, which represents SMEs, grumbled about “an ever-changing landscape of employment law” and asked that any new government “dedicate itself to rebalancing the cost and risk of employing staff”.

Back in March, an influential report from the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) alleged the “relentless flow of complex employment law” was stifling UK competitiveness and risking future job creation. ‘Employment regulation: up to the job?’ argued that basic workplace protections have been supplemented with burdensome rights to request, extended time-off provisions, and ‘unreasonable’ health and safety restrictions.

David Frost, Director General of the BCC, said of the report:

“There is an emerging consensus that employment law is now weighted too far in favour of the employee. Many rights come from EU legislation, which is informed by and aimed at labour markets very different to our own. The result is that the UK and the EU are becoming increasingly uncompetitive due to the rising cost of labour.”

The Institute of Directors (IoD) concurred, with its report, ‘Counting the Cost of Regulation’, arguing that Government regulation costs business more than £80bn a year, over six times higher than the Government’s estimate of £13bn.

The IoD went on to call on the Government to “step out of the way” and warned that a culture change was needed.

Workplace Law wanted to find out if its members reflected these views – so we carried out a poll in April that posed the question on whether the amount of regulation for businesses is too much, the right amount or not enough? Over 70% said there was too much regulation, with 62% going on to say that there isn’t enough official guidance and publicity about existing and upcoming regulations.

The Labour Government has certainly not been blind to these complaints, with the setting up of the Better Regulation Executive (part of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills) which was tasked with pushing for regulatory reform across Government departments, which it has reported saved UK businesses around £2.9bn last year.

However, despite this pronouncement, both the Tories and the Lib Dems were quick to criticise their rivals for over zealous regulation making and promised to repeal, roll back or simplify regulations in the future. Whether this proposal would work so well in practice is something which employment expert, Richard Thomas, an Employment Law Partner at Capital Law, says is easier said than done. “Unless you’re an employment lawyer, it’s hard to appreciate that although this sounds great for businesses the reality is very different.”

So whatever the outcome on 6 May, don’t expect major changes to business regulation overnight. Like everything else affecting the workplace, these things take time.