Small and medium sized businesses (SMEs) are spending more and more time on HR issues with over 90% buckling under the pressure of further red tape.

Peninsula employment law firm has revealed that bosses are spending an average ten hours a week addressing red tape issues, a figure that has climbed from nine hours back in 2004.

The biggest headache is HR obligations according to 67% of employers who say this is their main concern, followed by 24% who cite taxation as a growing concern.

The quantity and variety of HR laws is also causing problems for 93% of SMEs who admit there are just too many to cope with.

Worryingly, 64% said they were completely unaware of any changes in employment law in 2004 while 97% admitted they did not know they could be held accountable for over 50 types of complaint at tribunal from an employee with less than a year’s service.

Eighty-seven per cent of small firms believe that many of the problems would be resolved if employees didn’t have so many rights.

Peter Done, managing director of Peninsula commented:

“Larger organisations have HR departments to deal with red tape and HR issues. A small firm may not be able to afford an HR Manager and so the owner manager ends up wearing many hats.”

But warns Done, ‘ignorance is no defence’.

“Small firms really do have to learn the law. Employee rights are being continually extended and as a consequence employers that fail to not just learn about what is happening but also fail to deliver on these changes in the workplace will simply end up at tribunal.”

Many of the exemptions that used to let SMEs off the hook have now been removed, Done urges SMEs to gather information from a variety of sources including the web:

“There are still many small employers who have not taken advantage of the Internet and as a consequence do not have the resources necessary to learn about changes in the law.“

A total of 1546 employees were surveyed for the employment law survey.