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Employment Law Report Criticised by Unions
October 28 2011
Various unions across Yorkshire have criticised the Government and raised warnings over a commissioned report which suggested that companies should be able to sack their staff without an explanation, if they found them to be unproductive.
Tory donor and venture capitalist, Adrian Beecroft has suggested that the right to claim unfair dismissal should be scrapped as it holding local businesses back and stifling economic growth. In the same report, Beecroft suggests there needs to be a dramatic overhaul of UK employment laws, claiming that incapable workers were being left to "coast along" and that firms feared expanding because new staff may prove "unknown quantities" who were impossible to sack.
Released on the 12th October, the controversial document states that employment law was a major issue for all businesses in Britain, referring to the "terrible impact of the current unfair dismissal rules on the efficiency and hence competitiveness of our businesses, and on the effectiveness and cost of our public services".
Brendan Barber, TUC general secretary, commented: "Scrapping protection against unfair dismissal, even for people who have given years of loyal service, will do absolutely nothing to boost the economy. Indeed, if people are constantly in fear of losing their jobs, it will lead consumers to spend even less."
Paul Kenny, general secretary of the GMB union, said: "This report shows the true face of the nasty Tory Party who are, in fact, the political wing of the rich and the elite. That is why Tories have yet to make any move to curb the greed of bankers and financiers who had to be bailed out with billions of pounds of public funds."
Mr Beecroft also suggested that unfair dismissal is particularly challenging within public sector organisation, with managers being forced to offer under-performing staff large settlements because they feared costly tribunal rulings. "A proportion of employees, secure in the knowledge that their employer will be reluctant to dismiss them, work at a level well below their true capacity; they coast along," said the report.
Mr Beecroft argued that there was nothing in European Employment Law that would stop the Conservative Government changing unfair dismissal laws. He suggested replacing the current laws with ‘Compensated No Fault Dismissal', which would allow employers to sack unproductive employees with basic redundancy pay and notice.