Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne has today announced the introduction of a new form of employment contract which will see those taking it up giving away rights in exchange for capital gains tax benefits, and shares in their company.

Speaking at the Conservative Party Conference, he announced that employees who took up the new ‘owner-employee’ contract would give up their rights around unfair dismissal, redundancy, the right to request flexible working and time off for training. Women will also have to give 16 weeks’ notice of their date of return from maternity leave, instead of the usual eight weeks.

In return, the employees would get between £2,000 and £50,000 worth of shares in the business they work for and would be exempt from paying capital gains tax on any profit made from them.

The contract, which will be available from April 2013 is intended to suit fast growing small companies, but it will be open for any company to use if they see fit.

The Government will consult on the proposal later in the year, when more detail is available.
as you can see it is very unclear what this means other than a soundbite however for more information on this or any other human resource issue please contact me on 0789697172 or at mnewman@ukemploymentlawadvice.co.uk

Michael Newman