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For the many readers of this magazine who run small retail outlets, keeping abreast of laws on employment practice, is one of the responsibilities that go with the territory.
2004 saw a lot of new legislation affecting our industry, as the UK introduced laws to keep it in line with the rest of Europe. This included the rules on employment tribunals and dismissal, that have been in place a while now. Other new legislation that has been under discussion for a while is that on age prejudice, and this is due to come in force in October, further increasing the number of rules small businesses must understand and the paperwork they must handle.
Age Old Question
Nearly a year ago we ran an article exploring the question of age prejudice in employment, the government was planning new legislation, and as many employers in our industry already have quite an open policy to employing older people it seemed worth opening up the subject further. Now the introduction of those new laws is only a couple of months away.
As Alan Johnson, Secretary of State for Trade and Industry said last year: “Age discrimination prevents people of all ages from realising their full potential in the workplace, this in turn prevents employers from getting the best performance out of their business and delivering the best service to their customers.”
It would be easy to assume that any legislation on age prejudice would deal only with its affect on older people, however the new laws are aimed at all age prejudice.
The Employers Forum on Age (EFA) has carried out research into age discrimination. It calculates that the cost to the UK economy of age discrimination is £31 billion a year.
EFA believes that stereotypes about age have been built into workplace culture, and gives the examples that for old people this can mean difficulties getting a new job, training or being forced to retire before they want to. For younger people, says the EFA discrimination can damage job and promotion opportunities and also manifest itself in bullying or harassment.
EFA, together with the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) has carried out research amongst employers, at the beginning of this year to find out how they felt the new laws would impact on their businesses. The results showed that 40% of employers believed that age discrimination laws would have a greater impact than those on sex and race discrimination. The majority of employers surveyed believed that the new laws would have more impact than any other form of discrimination law. 40% also believed that when the laws come in they will be an element in over half employment tribunals. Three quarters of those surveyed believed that the laws would be of benefit to people of all ages, whilst 44%, rather cynically but possibly with justification, believed that the big winners would be employment lawyers.
A more recent survey has shown that employers are very under prepared for the new legislation and that whilst 63% new employment laws were coming, less than a quarter were aware they included age discrimination measures. A big problem, according to many of those surveyed was the government’s failure to provide information and guidance.
The BCC Director General, David Frost, said that the amount of new laws was a major problem: “It is not a surprise that small employers are struggling to keep on top of the new laws which they are expected to comply with. Since 1998 British business has been hit by a £50.3 billion red tape burden, around a third of which is employment related.”
For employers who do need to know more ACAS has introduced Guidance on Age and the Workplace, available to order or as an online download (see the fact box on this page). Launching the package the Chair of ACAS, Rita Donaghy, highlighted the problem of awareness amongst employers: “A lot of organisations are under the impression the regulations will not affect them, this is simply not true. Age discrimination can affect employees of any age, not just the young and old.”
Getting To Work
It isn’t just the age laws that are causing employers headaches of the kind David Frost describes. The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) recently said that its helpline was receiving around 240 calls a day from members struggling to deal with employment law.
Abbey Legal Services manages the helpline for the FSB and Dr Murray Fairclough, Abbey’s Managing Director, said: “Employment law is so hard for small businesses to cope with. Small firms already spend an average of 28 hours a month filling out forms. This disincentive to employ people, built into the sheer weight and complexity of the employment law, and it is a threat to the UK economy.” The stress on employers was very real he added,” We have had calls from business owners in tears because they want to follow the law, but it is too complicated or time consuming to get to grips with.”
The FSB is keen to point out that it isn’t the legal protection offers to employees that is the cause of the problem, just the red tape that goes with it.
More Ahead
With even greater employment legislation ahead it is clear that solutions will have to be found just to enable employers to keep up with requirements.
In April next year the new Work and Families act is due to come into force. This act will extend the right for workers to request flexible working to those who act as carers to adults, it will increase paid maternity leave from six to nine months and it will also allow any unused portion of maternity leave to be taken by the baby’s father as paternity leave.
For small businesses the future may well look daunting, many are already unwilling to seek official guidance on employment law as they fear it would trigger an enquiry, so they are effectively damned if they do, damned if they don’t.
One solution would seem to be to join organisations such as the FSB that can offer independent legal advice, or if you are already a member make sure you take full advantage of the services available.
The other option to simply hope that the practical difficulties of applying the red tape will become apparent to the government and they will eventually simplify the processes involved.
In focus we try to include any stories on legislation, or business that will affect Toolbusiness+Hire Readers, if you think there is something we should cover, or you have a comment or additional information on something already included in Focus please email me roland@airstream.co.uk
Internet Information Sources:
ACAS: www.acas.org.uk
Federation Of Small Businesses: www.fsb.og.uk
Age Positive: www.agepositive.gov.uk
British Chambers Of Commerce: www.chamberonline.co.uk
Department Of Trade and Industry: www.dti.gov.uk
The Employers Forum On Age: www.efa.org.uk
Third Age Employment Network: www.taen.org.uk
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Airstream Communications