Modern Workplaces Consultation

Vince Cable Excerpts

Monday 16th May 2011 Written Statements

[The Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills (Vince Cable)]

Today the Government have launched a consultation on plans to modernise employment practices in the UK, making them more flexible, more family-friendly and fitter for the 21st century. The modern workplaces consultation proposes changes to employment law that will give employers and employees alike greater choice and flexibility, making it easier for parents to balance domestic and professional responsibilities and helping employers to recruit and retain skilled people.

The proposals cover four main areas:

A new system of flexible parental leave. The consultation seeks views on replacing the current, rigid system of maternity and paternity leave with new arrangements that will allow mothers and fathers to share leave, encouraging shared parenting while enabling both parents to retain their attachment to the workplace. We also propose giving parents and employers much greater choice over exactly how and when leave is taken, enabling them to agree arrangements that suit them both;

Extending the right to request flexible working to all employees. This will spread the benefits that flexible working can bring to all parts of the society and economy. It will give businesses access to a wider pool of skills and talents, improve recruitment and retention rates, and increase staff morale and productivity;

Changes to the working time regulations as a result of Court of Justice of the European Union cases about the interaction of annual leave with other types of leave; and

Requiring employers who lose an employment tribunal case on equal pay to carry out a pay audit.

Taken together, these measures will deliver on several important commitments in the coalition agreement. We will introduce the changes in a way that maximises flexibility for both employers and employees, providing the necessary framework for a competitive business environment and economic growth, without compromising fairness.

The consultation is the latest step in the Government’s comprehensive review of employment law, on which the next steps were announced last week. We want to make it easier for businesses to employ people, but also for people to balance work and family commitments.

Copies of the consultation document will be placed in the House Libraries.