Urbano speaker panel breakfast - How Employment Rights Act will affect SMEs

Urbano speaker and panel events explore issues that face smaller companies in these testing times. Past events have looked at finding business opportunities abroad, B Corp and social value, marketing and branding, and how changes to the Procurement Act, 2023 affected those SMEs which tender for public work.

We have also enjoyed special guests such as the CEO of Pret, Pano Christou, and Florence King, Lady Mayoress of the City of London. Our panel speakers have real knowledge and experiences and the events are interactive and designed to help develop connections between companies with shared interests.

Our speaker panel event in October will examine reforms being brought in by the government’s Plan to Make Work Pay programme, including changes that were planned through the Employment Rights Act 2025, and specifically how they affect SMEs, as employers and freelancers.

The changes affect all sectors, including a reduction in the unfair dismissal qualifying period, and the requirement for employers to prevent sexual harassment of their employees, including by third parties. Other changes include gender equality and menopause support, and flexible worker protection.

There are also changes which will affect specific sectors, such as the Right to Work Scheme, which affects contractors and freelancers and those who use umbrella schemes (Construction), tipping (Hospitality) and how agency staff are used.

Leading the panel will be Debra Spurway, Director of HR Dept London City & Central. Debra has 25 years’ experience advising on matters relating to HR, Employment Law and Training & Development with a well-earned reputation for providing straight-forward, pragmatic and commercial advice to employers.

Other panellists and contributors will be announced in due course.

The event promises to be friendly, informative, interesting and enjoyable, all facilitated by Mark Herring, Urbano's Connector-In-Chief.

This event will be hosted at Urbano Member's SAGAL's showroom in Clerkenwell. SAGAL are workplace designers and furniture suppliers. They will supply a tasty breakfast and essential coffee to fuel the event.

HOW TO BOOK - PLEASE READ.

WHEN BOOKING, you will be taken to an external payment page. Enter your details and then CLICK ONCE to pay. You will receive an error message.  Do nothing else. We will email you with confirmation or a link to re-do the payment.

Memberships pay for Urbano to exist and organise events. Urbano events - unless stated - are open to non-member companies which can book a maximum of  TWO Urbano events for their team members before needing to join the community.

The price quoted on this page is for first time visitors and you may be charged more. We will notify you if and when your company's two visit maximum has been reached. 

To join Urbano in time for this event, please view benefits and options here: www.urbanonetwork.co.uk/membership