AXA - Be Life Confident

Nearly half (43%) of the UK's small and medium sized businesses (SMEs) have stated that the Employment Act will have a negative impact on them in 2006. This comes at a time when significant new legislation affecting employee rights, pay, hours and age discrimination is due to come into effect on the 6th April and the 1st October 2006. The same survey from AXA also highlighted that 40% of businesses believed that last year's EU expansion and the consequences of increased employee rights are bad for business.

Despite these strong views one fifth of the respondents also seemed ignorant of the consequences of not complying with legislation. 20% of respondents stated failure to comply with legislation would damage their business either a little or not at all. This means that approximately 760,000 businesses are at risk of litigation in the UK.¹

"However businesses might feel about red tape, it is simply against the law for businesses not to comply with any new legislation like this. If we don't look at our businesses and make the required changes to comply we are exposing ourselves to a significantly increased risk of employment tribunals." commented David Williams, claims director, AXA.

He continued; "Last year alone there were 92,000 claims through the Employment Tribunal Service and with new changes coming in this year they are expecting the number of claims to increase significantly.² Companies need to get wise to this new legislation and make sure that they adhere to the right procedures or they risk the future stability of their businesses".

Despite not fully appreciating the full consequences of non compliance to legislation businesses did recognise that the increased culture of litigation is a big concern in 2006 with 41% believing that it was a threat to their business this year.

David Williams continued: "We know that smaller businesses find it hard to keep up with the volume of legislation and the many changes that are made each year but this can not be an excuse to ignore it. Much of legislation is there to protect businesses as well as employees and an ethical and wise organisation will try and work this to their competitive advantage."

To help owner/managers deal with red tape and some of the changes coming into effect next month AXA has launched a new red tape busting package of online tools called Business Builder. The easy to use package is a one-stop shop for all legal and administrative matters and includes essential support and advice on the following areas:

• Health & Safety (easy production of policies, assessments and procedures)
• Employing Staff (solves basic HR and statutory employment obligations)
• Bookkeeping (manage VAT, create invoices and provide control of finances)
• Business Planner (business continuity, developing business plans, marketing and financial planning)
• 24/7 Legal Helpline (provides comprehensive legal expertise on terms and conditions of employment, issues around redundancy, data protection etc)
• Sales and Marketing (essential tools to promote businesses)
• HR and Records (procedures and documents for complete HR compliance)

To celebrate the launch, AXA is offering one month's free subscription worth £18 plus VAT. This offer is available to AXA and non-AXA customers from www.axa4business.co.uk.

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