Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce, the UK’s largest Chamber of Commerce covering 10 Local Authorities and representing over 5000 businesses, has consulted with its membership and has responded to the Government’s consultation on Modern Workplaces.
Whilst the Chamber welcomes measures to create equality and flexibility in the workplace, it has argued that businesses with 10 employees or less should be exempt from these proposals, which intend to make the maternity leave system more flexible by allowing parents to share the leave between them.
These proposals along with others outlined in the consultation on 'Modern Workplaces' if adopted, have the potential to act as a serious hindrance to the running of a business and The Chamber recommends that these proposals are reconsidered to avoid damaging impacts such as lost productivity and obstructing business growth.
Other areas of the consultation that the Chamber has commented on include:
Flexible Working: The Chamber has argued that there is no need to legislate on extending this to all employees as doing so will only create bureaucracy.
Working Time Regulations: In implementing these proposals, the Chamber has argued that the Government must ensure that the employer has full rights over when the accrued leave can be taken.
Equal Pay: Equal pay audits will be time consuming, costly and the Chamber questions whether they will achieve eliminating the gender pay gap. Instead the Government should focus on other non legislative methods to achieve this goal.
To see the full chamber response, please click here.
