Legislation Must Be Readily Comprehensible to SMEs - and Easy to Apply in Practice

The rules and regulations by which all UK businesses must abide seem, at the moment, to be an increasingly moveable - and increasingly indigestible - feast.

'Up in the Air' is a film for which George Clooney may win an Oscar for his portrayal of a man who makes a living by firing people.

I wish I could find that idea entertaining, but I'm afraid I can't, because the unpleasant truth underlying the 'story-line' behind the film is that more and more SMEs are genuinely employing 'corporate downsizers' to sack employees that they can no longer afford - not because they don't care about their employees enough to do the job themselves, but because the regulations surrounding unemployment law and redundancy are so impenetrable that they are afraid to do it for fear of making a mistake.

Very shortly, SMEs - like every other business - are going to have to abide by the forthcoming Equality Bill. The Government's 'impact assessment' of the new Bill claims that it will take an hour for an SME to understand the Section dealing with disability discrimination.

I don't think so. I think that the average SME will need to have someone more experienced in understanding and interpreting legal documents to get to grips with that Section - to say nothing of the rest of the Bill.

Much of the new Legislation is important - and very necessary. But it should also be readily comprehensible to SMEs who lack access to an internal legal department. Otherwise, it's likely to become yet another financial burden - which could well be the straw that breaks the camel's back.