Free legal assistance is available for small firms, but too few are taking full advantage of it

A valuable source of free employment law advice is being overlooked by small companies, according to the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR), which has launched a campaign to alert firms about the money they could be saving.

A survey of 300 firms with between two and 49 staff found 40% were likely to seek outside advice on employment issues in the next year. Such advice is available free on the department’s Business Link website.

BERR believes that a total of about £160m could be saved if half of employers used the website. If a third of affected businesses used the new redundancy statements tool in the website’s “employing people” section, the saving to business could be as much as £5m, it claims.

As part of the government’s employment law guidance campaign, more than 400,000 small businesses will be contacted to ensure they know of the Business Link website. More than 80% of firms that have used the site rated its advice as excellent, very good or good. Its features include downloadable tools to produce statements of employment, redundancy and holiday entitlement, and an email alert for new legislation.

The government is also to spend up to £37m to prevent workplace disputes unnecessarily going to employment tribunals. The measures are part of a package designed to simplify the dispute resolution system and save businesses and employees more than £175m a year.

The extra funding, over three years, will allow the independent dispute resolution service Acas to improve its helpline and advice services and offer help at any stage of a dispute to make sure it is never too late to find an informal resolution.

Acas will conduct pilot programmes over the next year to conciliate disputes that look set to become a claim to the tribunals, and it hopes to make the service available throughout the UK next year.

The changes complement provisions in the Employment Bill now before Parliament. The Bill also proposes to remove fixed periods for conciliation after a claim is made to the tribunal. This would enable Acas to get involved at any time until the tribunal reaches its verdict.

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