SME Business News

The campaign to delay the new Sexual Harassment Law coming into force on Sunday April 6th showed good signs of support from SMEs, although the new rules were implemented as planned by the Government.

The campaign was started by BusinessZone.co.uk and HRZone.co.uk, who on behalf of small business owners, viewed the plans as something that SMEs should have been consulted on before being passed through government.

Given the short time span between the announcement of the new rules and their start date, the campaign did particularly well, collecting over 600 signatures on the Downing Street website petition.

The campaigners see this as a positive move and are now urging more business owners to sign the petition as a show of strength, to show the government that small business owners will no longer tolerate regulation without consultation.

Dan Martin, editor of BusinessZone.co.uk, said: “We had very little time to set up our petition given the short notice provided by the government. But the level of interest shows just how firms feel about legislation being sneaked through without them being told about it.

“The government has admitted that it will cost small businesses almost £10m to comply with the new sexual harassment but has provided very little information as to how they should act.

“Although we have smashed the target of 200 signatories which we needed to force Gordon Brown to reply, I urge more small company owners and HR professionals to join us in calling on the government to always take the views of business into account when introducing new rules.”