Filed under: Employees — Alan @ 3:41 am
A new research study completed by the FSB revealed that over 60% of businesses do not think there should be a default retirement age set by the Government.
Yet, the FSB is still encouraging lawmakers to include a provision in law that will help protect the interests of employers that are forced to retire staff because they suffer from health issues that affect their performance abilities.
The survey showed that 60% of respondents have staff that is over the age of fifty and about a quarter has staff that is aged 65 years or older. Additionally, 80% of the firms that responded to the survey stated that they do not require their staff to retire at a certain age.
With 76% that feel retirement should be a concern between an employer and employee. Another 66% stated that they do not believe it is the Government’s role to declare a default retirement age.
Chairman of the Wessex Region of the Federation of the Small Businesses, Ken Moon, stated that small businesses are aware of the skills and contribution that older workers bring to their businesses and owners are not interested in creating a policy that makes all members retire at a uniform age.
Moon continued to say that businesses should be protected to make their own decisions regarding employees who have poor health and should be protected from employees that threaten to sue for being let go.
Filed under: Small business — Alan @ 5:42 am
Chairman of the FSB (Federation of Small Businesses), John Wright, said that small firms will continue to need aid in the coming year as they launch their recovery plans which will be dependent largely on help from banks.
Wright stated that Britain’s 5m SMEs will have a large role in bringing the UK out of the recession but that they need help in order to get there. Among the aid they will need from the Government, according to the chairman, are measures that will make it easier to hire employees and set up businesses.
He suggested that every jobcentre should have a business manager and systems should be enacted that would help place graduates with small businesses that need qualified employees.
In his New Year message Wright also said that banks need to be more competitive in offering finance options to small businesses. He stated that with the proper confidence and aid the SMEs will in return help provide jobs to those in need which will help boost recovery efforts throughout the UK.
A spokesman for the Department of Business stated that small business will help recovery and the Government has pledged to help the sector out which is why they lengthened the Enterprise Finance Guarantee for another year so that banks will continue to lend to smaller businesses.
Additionally the spokesman said that they are working with the FSB to pair 10,000 graduates with internships at SMEs.
Filed under: Small business — Alan @ 8:35 am
The FSB, Federation of Small Businesses, has petitioned the Chancellor not to hike taxes in their latest pre-budget report, amidst fears that higher taxes may lead to a greater rate of unemployment.
In the submission, the FSB points to a report performed by the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) that shows that raising taxes costs UK businesses billions of pounds, which in turn leads to businesses being forced to cut hundreds of thousands of jobs.
The hypothetical report by the CEBR shows that a simple 1p increase in employer national insurance can result in massive job losses without actually helping out public finances in a significant manner.
Additionally, the FSB is asking that corporation taxes be reduced so that small businesses are rewarded with incentives if they hire more staff.
According to the CEBR report, if the Government were to raise corporate taxes on small businesses from 21% to 26%, 100,000 jobs would be lost from SME’s, reducing the economic output of these businesses by £4.3 billion, which in turn would only help reduce the deficit of the public sector by around £1.6b over a period of ten years.
Additionally, the FSB would like to see the VAT rise delayed as well.
