SMALL businesses must not switch off to employment legislation even in the face of ever more complex regulations, a senior legal figure has warned.
Emma Anstead, head of the employment team at law firm Lindsays, said company owners could not afford to ignore employment law if they wanted to attract the best staff, despite increasing amounts of red tape.
She believes the UK government's review
of statutory dismissal and disciplinary procedures may alleviate some pressure on employers, but said small businesses were still over-burdened by new staffing legislation.
Her views were echoed by employers' groups, which called on the government to make some exceptions for small businesses. Anstead said: "A lot of the legislation is over-burdensome on smaller employers. It used to be that there were some exemptions for smaller employers, but those are now few and far between; they're treated like any other employer.
"Some of this legislation could put people off employing staff and maybe look at an alternative relationship, like taking on self-employed contractors or taking on agency workers. That's an issue too, because the agency workers or contractors don't have the same protection and rights as employees so it's not such an attractive option for quality candidates."
She added: "I think some smaller employers feel that they're always on the back foot with this huge amount of legislation and ask how they can possibly keep up."
Lindsays last week cemented its employment law credentials by merging with Kidstons, a Glasgow-based firm with a strong reputation in the field. Its employment team now runs to 11 lawyers, including four partners and two Law Society of Scotland-accredited specialists.
She added: "There's such a war for talent that you can't afford to ignore employment law.
"If you're trying to attract and retain quality staff then employment law is the starting point – you've got to go beyond that if you wanted to prompt a positive culture in the workplace and engender good working relations with your staff."
Stuart Mackinnon, spokesman for the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) in Scotland, said:
"Governments, at all levels, are producing employment legislation at such a rate that it is incredibly difficult for time-poor small businesses to keep up.
"The government should take responsibility and ensure legislation is firstly necessary, but also practical and understandable.
"The relentless, one-size-fits-all approach to employment law is unhelpful and has to be improved. Businesses that employ fewer than ten employees account for 93 per cent of all Scottish firms, but most employment law is geared toward full-time human resources specialists, not the owner of a small firm.
"Although we do recognise some legislation is necessary, we believe that increasing levels risk stifling Scotland's economic growth. Imagine the success the Scottish small business community and the economy could have if it wasn't burdened with inflexible, unnecessary, confusing and, most importantly time-consuming employment legislation."
Martin Stepek, the chief executive of the Scottish Family Business Association, said: "All of Scotland's family businesses recognise the importance of legislation, especially for safeguarding the health and safety of employees and related areas.
"However, the combination of ever-increasing regulation and unnecessarily unwieldy bureaucracy that accompanies it really does stifle the energy and drive that business people need to flourish.
"Small family businesses, in particular, are overwhelmingly stifled and drained of energy by a disproportionate weight of legislation and red tape.
"The SFBA recognise that this is not an easy issue to resolve for the good of all, but somehow we must find ways to retain the legislation that matters, while minimising its adverse impact on the ability of business leaders to fulfil their companies' potential."
The full article contains 620 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
