Both the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) and the Institute of Directors (IoD) have called for changes to the Employment Rights Bill, stating that if not changed that it will have an adverse impact upon businesses and the wider economy.
The IoD has released a new report which has found that 72% of business leaders are of the view that the Bill will harm economic growth, 49% believe that recruitment will be adversely impacted, 36% that work will be outsourced abroad, and 23% that the level of redundancies will increase. Nevertheless, 52% acknowledge that it would make them more inclined to invest in automation, which could potentially boost economic growth and benefit the wider economy as it would increase productivity.
Meanwhile, the chairman of the CBI, Rupert Soames stated: "I think [businesses will] not only...not employ [new staff], I think they will let people go. I think there could be quite an ugly rush before some of these things come into force. Nobody wants this, but the things like the probation periods in the Employment Rights Bill, we don't want that to become an adventure playground for employment rights lawyers."
