Posted Date: 6th October 2022
In her conference speech during the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham this week, Liz Truss announced: “deregulating aspects of retained EU law would be a priority of her administration.”
GDPR
Culture secretary Michelle Donelan has confirmed that the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will be scrapped, in favour of an alternative UK system which will be simpler and clearer for business to follow.
However, UK companies who offer online businesses in Europe would still have to abide by GDRP, potentially increasing the costs and time spent complying with both laws.
Removing Reporting Obligations
There are plans to change the threshold for current reporting obligations such as executive pay ratio reporting and gender pay gap reporting, from 250 employees or more, to 500 employees. However, the threshold could be increased as high as 1,000 employees.
Again, this is with the aim to remove red tape for businesses and to save costs and time spent on producing the reports. However, critics worry that removing gender pay gap reporting would risk turning the clock back for working women.
Dilution of Employment Rights
The new business secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg has plans to dilute certain employment rights for workers who earn over £50,000 which includes introducing no-fault dismissals which would mean a business would not need to follow a fair and proper procedure for terminating an employee’s contract. There are also reports of removing current rights for agency workers.
Opt out of 48 hours
The UK’s Working Time Regulations, which are derived from the EU Working Time Directive, dictate that employees can’t work more than 48 hours a week on average over a 17-week reference period. This is another piece of legislation that the Conservatives are planning to scrap.
However, as most employees sign an agreement to opt out of this rule during their induction, removing this legislation wouldn’t cause an issue for most employers.
Should you need any guidance with these potential affects, get in touch with our HR consultants who are here to help you.