New legislation to cost businesses £1.5 billion

A survey warns that new legislation is to cause headaches among employers as tribunals set to increase

Experts fear that in the coming months there is going to be a dramatic increase of industrial tribunals, costing firms 1.5 billion if they fail to implement new legislation.

A survey by Peninsula, the employment law firm, shows that 97 per cent of businesses are unaware of the implications of the new legislation or more alarmingly are not taking them seriously.

The New Statutary Disputes Resolution, to be introduced in October, will affect at least 1,167,000 businesses across the UK, and many believe this will have a massive effect on employer-employee relationships.

The new regulations will require employers to apply new documentation to represent disciplinary, dismissal and grievance rules and procedures.

They also require employers to take more care in the exact wording of disciplinary documentation.

Although the government sees the new procedures as a way of establishing trust within the working environment, most employers believe them to be yet another form of red tape.

The government has already come under criticism for the amount of excessive administration duties it places on small businesses and 95 per cent of employers believe the new legislation will cost their business further time and money.

Mike Huss, Senior Employment Law Specialist at Peninsula, said, “Small business employers will seriously feel the effects of the new regulations, which will see businesses which employ less than 20 employees requiring written documentation based on the disciplinary rules and procedures and more importantly now the new particulars required by the new legislation.

“The cost of time and finances will prove to have a greater effect on these small businesses, so it is recommended that all small businesses organise themselves in preparation to these costs.”