Member

The reason for this is straightforward. We must acknowledge that the costs of these new sick pay provisions will fall disproportionately on small and micro businesses: those least equipped to absorb them. Paradoxically, the Bill would also apply these requirements to employers who already go above and beyond, voluntarily, in supporting their staff through illness. According to the latest figures, 27% of businesses already offer generous contractual sick pay arrangements, many of them paying far more than the statutory minimum. These are overwhelmingly medium and large businesses, which provide such schemes in response to competition. There is huge competition for talent, retention and reputation. That is how good employment standards should develop: through innovation and market competition. What the Bill proposes is a levelling down, sweeping in companies already providing 90% or even 100% pay, and subjecting them to unnecessary bureaucracy, as though the Government know better than the employer and employee what is fair or workable.