Ben is back, this time with a panel of HR and employment law experts to discuss the Government’s new Employment Rights Bill, a new package of laws that grant new rights to employees and new obligations for employers. As an owner of an SME, Ben has plenty of questions about this new bill. With 26 employees, that’s a lot of new rights to manage, so he’s assembled this amazing team to explain the key factors.
Ben is joined by Naomi Butters, Chief Executive of Icena, an empowerment and social change training and consultancy business; Priya Magar, a Partner specialising in employment law at EMW Law; and Claire Butcher, Director at CE People, a HR consultancy.
Ben outlines that SMEs are 93% of the country’s economy, but they often neglect HR during their business growth journey. He admires those that specialise in it for their knowledge. Claire emphasises that HR is “about protecting business owners, but it’s important to do right by the employee as well.”
Employment Rights Bill
The first part of the Employment Rights Bill discussed are the aspects of harassment in the workplace. The new rights put more pressure on employers to discourage sexual harassment, while creating and maintaining an environment where employees feel safe to report when they feel uncomfortable. This includes things like risk assessments and training to ensure employees are knowledgeable.
While these measures may cause short-term loss of revenue through time lost to training or performing risk assessments, the panel explain that the potential savings from being able to show that steps were taken will protect the business long-term should a dispute arise.
Day One Rights
The conversation moves to day one rights. While the policies are currently out for consultation and will likely change before they are implemented, the principle of the move is to give employees earlier access to rights for things like statutory sick pay (SSP), flexible working, the right to switch off, and wrongful dismissal claims.
The flexible working rights have already been in place, but these new laws will bolster the existing rights and make it harder for employers to reject flexible working requests, now only able to do so if the request is deemed ‘unreasonable’. Ben makes the point that this could incur additional costs for businesses if they are asked to purchase new equipment to facilitate these flexible working requests, and more people working from home may cause difficulties in creating a company culture. New SSP rights may also incur new costs, with SSP now payable from day one of sickness, rather than day four.
The Right to Switch Off
Ben asks about the new right to switch off. He gives the example of client group chats he’s in with his employees and clients. He may message in them outside of working hours, as will clients. He says he is clear with his employees that they do not have to reply outside of working hours, but he or clients may put information into them outside of working hours. The panel explain that this is fine under the new laws, as long as he is clear with his employees that they do not have to have any input outside of working hours.
Clare finishes the podcast by making the point that HR is often reactive, dealing with disputes after they have happened, but that it should be more proactive, preventing issues and aiming to produce a positive culture actively.
Watch and listen to the podcast:
