HR teams warned not to underestimate Employment Rights Act changes

The latest survey to be published indicates that HR teams may be underestimating the scale of the change that the Employment Rights Act will bring.

This survey asked the leaders of those teams to evaluate the potential impact of the various parts of the new legislation. What the results show is that they are very focused on the effect of the unfair dismissal rights changes, but appear to be less concerned about other parts of it. 60% of the HR professionals who were surveyed said the new rules regarding unfair dismissal were the aspect they were most focused on preparing for.

On the other hand, just 18% expressed concern about the changes to statutory sick pay, while 9% cited trade union rights changes. 6% of them said that third-party harassment liability was the biggest concern, while 4% said it was the changes to fire and rehire.

Despite the low percentages, all of the above changes will create significant issues for organisations. It could be that some HR teams feel overwhelmed by the breadth of the reforms – especially if they are small teams. Securing additional support and expertise from outsourced HR services in Northampton would help in that situation.

Stephen Simpson from Brightmine told Personnel Today that HR teams were not wrong to be concerned about unfair dismissal:

“The reduction of the qualifying period to six months and the removal of the cap on unfair dismissal compensation will significantly increase litigation risk and settlement expectations.”

He added that they could not afford to neglect the other planned reforms though.