West Drayton employment expert comments on law change

The minimum wage has increased from £5.73 per hour to £5.80 per hour, and restaurants will also now be barred from using tips and gratuities to meet the rate.

Mr Lowe said: "The minimum wage has stopped, to a certain extent, the exploitation of, sometimes, desperate people who are trying to earn some sort of living.

"Like all seemingly good things there is a down side to the situation as well.

"It does regularly increase the cost of labour to businesses, who may have been already operating close to the profit/break even line, which, in turn, can result in the shedding of staff."
The Government have also announced that in October 2010, the adult wage will be extended to include 21 year olds.
Referring to the change in the law for the restaurant trade, Mr Lowe described it as a 'big change'.

"This is a big shake up for the industry and at a time when restaurants and hospitality sectors may be suffering from people tightening their belts, so to speak, and not eating out.

"In some cases this will increase the costs to employers who may either pass that cost onto its clients or reduce the number of staff employed.

"It does bring the workers concerned in line with other minimum wage guaranteed earners and this can be seen as equalising out the playing field."

The other big change was the launch of a trial scheme in Nottingham, which will see businesses having to pay parking charges for their employees, although it has been criticised as many will simply pass the charges on.

Mr Lowe was sceptical whether this could work in Hillingdon, "It will have to be managed extremely carefully because passing the cost onto the employees may cause more grumbles and issues.

"With the amount of businesses in the Hillingdon area there isn't a huge amount of parking available anyway.

"Businesses may have to look at encouraging more use of public transport, even a cycle to work scheme, if they do adopt the parking levy charge it would have to be careful not to be seen as just another 'stealth tax'.