Employment

Chairman: Sue Waldock, Rank Group plc

The next Employment Group meeting scheduled for Wednesday 10th February 2010, at 10.00pm at Davenport Lyons, 30 Old Burlington Street, London W1 HAS BEEN POSTPONED. The next Employment Group meeting will be on 13th May at 2.00 pm at Davenport Lyons.

The sport, leisure, hospitality and tourism sector employs more than 2.5m people, creating 1 in 5 new jobs. BISL’s Employment Working Group includes operators and professional services and is now regularly consulted by BERR (previously the DTI) on matters including working hours, Working Time Directive opt-out and statutory holiday entitlement and by the Home Office on migrant labour issues. BISL is called to give oral evidence to the Low Pay Commission annually on National Minimum Wage and Neil Goulden, BISL’s Chairman, is a Member of the LPC.

Current issues on the Employment agenda:

Developments in Europe
- BISL has lobbied hard on the retention of the opt-out in the Working Time Directive and a workable reference period in any Agency Workers Directive. Agreement reached between employers, employees and Government in the UK and between European Member States reflects our success. BISL set out its general position on employment issues in a response to an EU Green Paper on Labour Law.

Pensions
- Pensions reform continues apace with consecutive Pensions Bills in Parliament. The introduction of the personal accounts system and auto-enrolment in pension schemes from 2012 will have a significant effect on the sport, leisure, hospitality and tourism industries.

National Minimum Wage
- BISL prepares an annual submission to the Low Pay Commission as it considers the rate of National Minimum Wage for the following year. We are currently collecting evidence from members.

Employment Bill
- The Employment Bill currently progressing through Parliament covers the replacement of dispute resolution procedures.

Draft Legislative Programme (2008-09)
- The Government plans to introduce an Education and Skills Bill and an Equality Bill during the next Parliament. The Employment Group will consider both when they are published.

Immigration
- The new Points Based Migration system is being phased in with BISL paying particular attention to Tiers 2 and 5 and their impact on sport and the availability of ethnic chefs for the hospitality industry. Employers who wish to employ people from outside the EU must apply to be sponsor organisations. Visitors who come to take part in sporting competitions or events will be able to enter using a ‘tourist visa’ and will not require sponsorship by the event organiser.

Holiday Entitlement
- BISL led lobbying to Ministers at the DTI (now BERR) and advisors at Number 10 to ensure that the new statutory holiday entitlement could be bought out by employers during the transitional period and that the introduction of the second four day increase was delayed. Holiday entitlement has been 24 days since October 2007 and will be 28 days from April 2009.

Links:

Noise at Work
- Since April 2008 the entertainment industry has been covered by the Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005. Information and advice on compliance is available at http://www.soundadvice.info/.