08 March 2024 
Martin Higgs, Communications Officer
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‘The last quarter of 2023 (Q4) saw negative growth of 0.3% and, as this was a second consecutive quarter of negative growth, it meant that the UK had fallen into a technical recession.
‘While this bears no comparison with the last recession in the first half of 2020, when Covid sent GDP down by more than 20% in a single quarter, it is enough to make employers nervous when it comes to taking on new staff.
‘This is the view of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) with its Deputy Chief Executive, Kate Shoesmith, pointing out: “Businesses tell us they are not feeling sure-footed enough to jump into the kind of investing and hiring they want and need to do to meet their growth ambitions, because the UK economy has been essentially stuck in one place for 18 months. And that’s where we need a strong response from Government and the policymakers.”
‘The spring Budget presents an ideal opportunity to work on the issues holding back broader economic growth and productivity gains, she went on.
‘According to REC’s Labour Market Tracker, there were more than 870,000 new job postings in January 2024, meaning there are more than 1.8 million active job postings in the UK.
‘However, Ms Shoesmith makes clear: “The past few years have shown that advertising for staff and finding them are two different things. There is little hope of filling such a high level of vacancies any time soon given the serious labour shortages in the UK, a problem which creates a vicious cycle.”
‘The REC has highlighted that the large-scale rollout of childcare provision to take place through 2024 and 2025, promised by the Government, will prove difficult without increased staffing levels.
‘The Government should even consider granting a business rates exemption to all early years providers to boost the availability of childcare, it suggests.’
HR changes following government EU law review.
Question:
Which EU laws are the Government going to change?
Answer:
The Government has announced the first set of employment law changes as part of the EU law review which it has undertaken using the flexibility the UK now has to depart from the laws required by the EU. The first areas announced for change are holidays, TUPE and non-compete clauses. Rolled-up holiday pay (RUHP) is to be re-instated. This practice is currently unlawful. It will be useful for employers who have workers who do ad hoc hours, like a zero-hours worker. Holiday accrual for part-year and irregular hours workers will also be changed from the current position, which gives these workers the full 5.6 weeks’ holiday entitlement (not prorated), to a calculation of 12.07% of hours worked in the pay period.
Relating to working time, employers will no longer have to keep such detailed records on worker rest breaks.
The current exemption on the election of representatives in a TUPE transfer will be extended. Where a business is undergoing a TUPE transfer, there is a requirement to elect employee representatives to take part in consultation on the transfer but businesses with fewer than 10 employees are exempt from this element, meaning they can consult with employees directly. The extension means that businesses with fewer than 50 staff, and where the TUPE transfer affects less than 10 staff, will not have to elect representatives.
Finally, the duration of a non-compete clause will be limited to three months. These clauses are used to prevent employees who leave from working with a competitor or setting up their own business that would be a competitor, for a defined period. Currently, there are no laws on how long a non-compete clause can last but this change would restrict the duration to three months.
There are no specific timelines given for these changes, but they may coincide with the removal of other EU laws on 31 December 2023. It is worth noting that more announcements may be made which set out further legal changes.
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