With 58% of the vote HRZone members agree that a common commencement date for new legislation does help to alleviate the red-tape burden.
Designed to assist businesses in managing new employment law obligations the government now brings in new regulations which arise from within the UK at only two points in the year:
- April 6 – the start of the tax year
- October 1- when the minimum wage is revised
Of the new procedures, the DTI say: “The harmonisation of commencement dates is intended to ensure that changes to employment policy are made in a coordinated fashion and to provide businesses, employee representatives and individuals with greater clarity and awareness about when changes will be made. This should assist all parties to plan for new measures and help implement them effectively.”
Despite the majority win, 20% of HRZone members are erring on the side of caution saying that ‘only time will tell’.
Alison Wallace, head of employment practice at Steptoe & Johnson solicitor disagreed with our members’ vote pointing out the difficulties of managing various changes at once:
“Although there is a lead in period for implementation due to pre announcements there is still never enough time to attend to all of this new legislation and its effects on a business before it becomes law. So instead of having time to see how it all might work in practice there are perhaps three or four sometimes competing issues all crying out for attention at the same time.”
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