Catha For Council Blog

Businesses across the UK are slowly recovering from the worst of the recession and are trying to revitalize the economy. Under these circumstances, the companies do not want to bear additional costs due to upcoming legislations, according to the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC).

However, the UK government has made it difficult for businesses to turn the economy around by its proposals to impose regulations and tax on companies. These new regulations, when implemented, will force businesses to shell out a total of £25.6bn. This huge amount will make it difficult for companies to begin the process of economic recovery, believes the BCC.

In view of these upcoming regulations, the BCC is requesting the British government to suspend its employment legislation for at least three years.

A number of regulations have been proposed by the government, such as the Equality Bill, the Agency Workers Directive and Pensions Reform. All these regulations are about to be implemented within the next three years (from 2010 to 2012). The Equality Bill will see companies paying £190m, the Agency Workers Directive will force companies to pay £1.5bn annually, whereas Pensions Reform would translate to annual costs of £4.8bn.

The BCC says that during this three-year period, implementation of new employment laws should be suspended. This suspension would give these regulations time to settle and would enable businesses to boost the economy by creating new jobs.

David Frost, Director General of the BCC, supported the call for suspension. Frost hopes the new government will be more considerate towards the plight of businesses that are to be burdened with such heavy regulations.

For anyone involved in human resources management, training and development, a CIPD qualification can be a valuable source of information to help develop the skills needed in employment practice and understand how employment practice works within a personnel department.