TUC claims Employment Rights Bill will benefit workers, businesses and the economy

The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) has published impact assessments regarding the Employment Rights Bill and, according to the TUC, they show that the proposed legislation will bring real and substantial benefits to workers, businesses and the wider economy.

The impact assessments and various analytical documents relating to the Bill can all be found on the Government website.

The Government confirmed that they expect the policies covered within the Bill to impose a direct cost on business of less than £5 billion annually. This includes both monetised and non-monetised costs that result from delivering the benefits to workers, employers familiarising with new legislation, admin and compliance costs, as well as the other costs such as the loss of flexibility for employers who use variable hours.

The Government explains that most of those costs would be due to “employers familiarising themselves with the new legislation, administrative and compliance costs”.

The assessments specifically examine parts of the Bill, including:

making flexible working the default

protections against dismissal for pregnant workers

day-one unfair dismissal rights

the repeal of the Trade Union Act 2016

whistleblowing protections against sexual harassment.

With jobs becoming more secure, the quality of work improving and incomes rising, the TUC highlights that 10 million working people across the country will directly benefit from the overhaul of workers’ rights.

The impact assessments show that there will be direct financial gains for low-paid and insecure workers. It also predicts that the Bill will result in improved workforce health and wellbeing, increased economic activity, improving equality, better industrial relations and higher productivity.

The TUC General Secretary, Paul Nowak, said: “Driving up employment standards will boost living standards, productivity, and growth. That’s why the vast majority of managers support these plans.”

He went on to explain how the plans will also stop decent firms from being undercut by the minority of bad employers.

The impact assessment states that costs to business will represent just under 0.4% of total employment costs across the economy and these costs will be more than offset by substantial wider economic and social gains.

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