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News Release from: The Forum of Private Business
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 21 October 2005
Statutory holidays put UK SMEs in a
'straitjacket'
Small business' competitive edge is being eroded by UK Government plans, which will make it illegal for employers not to give staff 28 days holiday, says a leading business pressure group.
Small business' competitive edge is being eroded by UK Government plans, set to be announced later this week, which will make it illegal for employers not to give staff 28 days holiday, a leading business pressure group is claiming The Forum of Private Business (FPB) said the move, coming just weeks after the latest minimum wage increase and the announcement that paternity leave is to be increased from two weeks to six months, will be greeted with dismay by employers
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 13 Sep 2005 at 8.00am (UK)
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"This is an utterly unnecessary piece of legislation which again ties small businesses up in a legal straitjacket,' said the FPB's national chairman Len Collinson.
"Small firms rely on the flexibility of their staff to remain competitive, particularly at times of peak demand.
This legislation will inevitably increase staffing costs coming straight off firms' bottom line.
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But that flexibility cuts both ways in that employees of small businesses benefit from extra holiday or extended leave they would never get at a large business.
The message is that the Government should leave small firms to get on with running their business, not impose more punitive legislation." FPB member Keith Chetwynd, managing director of RK Engineering in Warwickshire, said the move could lead him to employ more agency staff.
"With the paternity leave and the minimum wage this is just crazy," he said.
"I already give my staff 28 days holiday, and I pay my low-paid staff more than the minimum wage but it is the principle.
The Government is obsessed with wrapping employees up in cotton wool.
I need to be flexible or risk losing work.
These politicians cannot see what they are doing.
I am being hammered by them and the bank.
I am at the end of my tether." Another FPB member Brian Hogg, managing director of Cams Fire and Security PLC in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, said employment legislation was becoming increasingly punitive when added together.
"There is no flexibility left at all," he said.
"We actually offer our staff 23 days plus bank holidays.
Small businesses have a unique place in the British economy because we can offer staff all kinds of benefits.
This legislation implies small firms are bad employers.
I consider myself a good employer and ironically this will actually be bad for employees." * About FPB - The Forum of Private Business (FPB) was formed in 1977 and is a pressure group fighting on behalf of private businesses.
The FPB represents approximately 25,000 UK-based businesses employing in excess of 600,000 people, and is a powerful lobbying voice in both the UK and the European Union.
The FPB, as the only full UK member of UEAPME - the organisation that represents small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Europe - is the most prominent advocate of UK SMEs in Brussels and has a track record of positively affecting legislation prior to its introduction in the UK.
The FPB also provides a range of business services aimed at increasing member efficiency and profitability.
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