Reacting to the publication of the Parental Leave and Benefit Bill 2019 today, Sven Spollen-Behrens, SFA Director, stated: “The proposed legislation correctly identifies the need to improve family leave within the first year.
Nevertheless, given the current skill shortages small businesses are struggling to find replacement staff and the proposals in this Bill will place greater administration burden and more confusing laws on the country’s small firms.
“Enquiries on family leave, maternity, paternity and parental leave, are one of the top five-member queries to the SFA HR service. Unlike large companies’ small firms do not have human resource departments to deal with the complex administration of growing family leave, so they find it difficult to administer, replace staff and meet the costs of when someone goes on leave.
“The proposals in this new Bill and the Parental Leave (Amendment) Bill 2017 continue to place more legislative burden on top of new and established legislation and will add to the cost of doing business in Ireland and increase the time spent by owner-managers on administrative duties.
“For small firms to be able to react and prepare for a new legal and administrative environment, the SFA is calling for the introduction and implementation of a national Small Business Strategy for Ireland. This initiative is calling on government to target the development of small business across all regions with just as much energy and strategic focus as they have put on attracting FDI from the 1950s to the present day. By ensuring that draft legislation and other policy initiatives affecting small business are better assessed to avoid small firms being disproportionately burdened by increasing costs and administration.”
Article Published: 25/04/2019