Joe Robertson spoke in Employment Rights Bill debate to remind the Government of the unequal effect on small businesses.
Joe Robertson started by acknowledging the sentiment and intention of the bill, and was in broad agreement with the direction of travel and focus on improved conditions for workers.
The Employment Bill aims to introduce workers rights, such as the right to protection from unfair dismissal early on in the employment relationship, reduce zero hours contracts and establish the first legally binding mechanism to enforce and uphold minimum pay, terms and conditions and other policies.
Newly elected onto the Health and Social Care Committee, Joe Robertson said, "The Government has accepted in its analysis that the bill will increase costs for employers, due to their confusing concept of a statutory probation period for dismissals and imposing statutory sick pay on small employers from day one. For small employers, the cost implications may impact their decisions to hire, reduce incentives to grow and ultimately harm economic growth which is bad for workers. Not only has the government failed to address how they will mitigate these costs, but they have also failed to address the affect of the bill on the social care sector and who will have to absorb the additional costs - whether this be the local providers or the local council. Social care cannot absorb any more costs without the promised funding reform coming first.
I have urged the Government to pause the bill and look at it again, to remove the onerous content, which threatens growth and to put appropriate mitigation in place before bringing it back into law."
