The government has announced a new policy, removing what it describes as “red tape”, being “reporting requirements and other regulations” in connection with workers’ rights.
The policy, which will apply to businesses employing under 500 employees, is apparently a response to medium sized businesses reporting that dealing with regulation is a burden to their operations. Previously, exemptions only applied to businesses with fewer than 50 employees.
The regulatory exemptions will apply to all new regulations under development as well as those under current and future review.
Depending on the impact of the new threshold, the government have commented that it may look to consult in the future on potentially increasing the threshold to include companies with fewer than 1,000 employees.
The government has insisted the exemption will be applied in a “proportionate way to ensure workers’ rights and other standards will be protected, while at the same time reducing the burden for growing businesses”.
From the limited information provided in the announcement, it is believed that the application of the policy will be limited to reporting requirements such as gender pay gap reporting and executive. However, Frances O’Grady, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, has commented that the changes represent “real threats to workers” and has described the scrapping of gender pay reporting as “turning the clock back for women at work”.
According to the Financial Times, other proposals to slash workplace rights for high earners have been quashed as “half-baked” and “unworkable” by a Number 10 source.
Until further guidance has been provided by the government as to the application of the policy, we suggest Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), we can only watch this space.
For more information on this issues related to this article, please contact the Employment Team.
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