Quentin Colborn, an independent HR consultant kick starts his new series – ‘Colborn’s Corner’ with a pundit’s view on what a 2005 General Election might mean for the HR function.

Nobody knows for certain, but May 5 is being touted as the expected date for the next General Election. Should this concern HR professionals? Do we have a view on anything political and will it really make a difference to what we do?

Policies
Labour and its opposing parties are currently unveiling their election manifestos gradually revealing the contents of their key policies that will have implications for HR practitioners.

Family rights
As I write this I hear that the Government is proposing an extension to Maternity Pay in 2007 along with greater rights for families to spend time together. To balance this with the needs of employers, employees will need to respond to more questions about their return to work. Has the balance gone overboard with respect to family rights? We are in a relatively full labour market so should this be treated as an employee benefit or should market competitiveness address such needs for time off? I believe that we have now reached the stage of having ‘National Minimum Rights’ and any further extensions should be a matter for individual agreement as we currently see within the pay arena.

Employment rights
I’ve heard little as yet about additional employment rights, but if the election is a close run race I predict that we will see further ‘employee friendly’ polices coming to the fore at the behest of some of the bigger unions. Unfair dismissal rights kicking in at six months rather than 12? Remember, you heard it here first!

Earnings
The parties are currently falling over themselves trying to say that they won’t increase taxation, directly at least, but how much does taxation policy effect employment? Some will recall a few years ago a government (I can’t remember which) introduced a new definition of inflation called the Tax and Price Index (TPI). The theory being that during periods of pay restraint employees should look at the value of their net earnings rather than simply RPI so that when taxation came down there should be a public recognition of this.

Most pay reviews have moved away from a linkage with inflation, and hopefully most organisations have killed the perception of annual reviews being linked to it. However, should we encourage people to look at the value of their pay slip in terms of what it buys?

While on the topic of earnings, what is the current perception of the impact of taxation on the willingness of people to work longer or harder? How often do we hear that people will not go that extra mile because of all the tax and National Insurance it would attract?

It’s also interesting to reflect on the huge change there has been in the approach to statutory involvement in pay. Go back a number of years and there were statutory limits on pay increases. Today these restrictions would never be entertained – instead we have the National Minimum Wage!

Internal politics
What about freedom of expression at work? How many organisations have developed polices to address the issue of political canvassing in the workplace? Electioneering during working hours cannot be acceptable, but what if someone spends their lunch hour discussing politics in the canteen, sounds okay – until you happen to hear that they are a member of the National Front. That’s the time for a clatter of feet (or e-mail) to the HR department and a swift dusting down of the Human Rights Act. Where’s the section on freedom of expression? Does it apply within our organisation?

Politics seem to be undergoing something of a transformation at the moment; on one hand apathy is growing in general towards politics, yet we are also seeing the growth of a number of new political groupings. UKIP and Veritas are the relatively new kids on the block while the National Front seems to be growing support in some closely defined geographic areas. This is fine, until those who have grown in political awareness wish to spread their views. I would be interested to know which organisations have addressed this within their policies and who is currently thinking about it.

Time off
The last few years have seen a growth of employment rights including those for time off for a variety of reasons. I wouldn’t dream of insulting the intelligence of HRZone members by listing them all, but how about another one – time off to vote? With involvement in the political process diminishing should we be encouraging employees to vote? If so, should there be any parameters?

HRZone invites you to add your thoughts and views on these issues by adding your comments below.