Cable falls in line with Beecroft’s anti-worker voodoo economics

Vince Cable has signed up to the Conservatives’ battle against employment rights today, announcing his support of the vast majority of venture capitalist and Tory donor Adrian Beecroft’s report on employment law.

The Guardian reports:

Companies employing fewer than 10 staff may be exempted from employment regulations … to promote economic growth.

In a speech on Wednesday Cable will say the coalition has agreed other areas of employment law reform. He will announce:

• A consultation on introducing “protected conversations” to allow employers to discuss an employee’s poor performance or retirement in an open way that could not be used in a tribunal claim.

• An overhaul of tribunals that would mean all claims initially go to the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service. Witness expenses would be ended and only one judge would be used in unfair dismissal cases.

• A further consultation on simpliflying the use of compromise agreements in which employers pay an agreed amount to an employee if both sides agree that a contract of employment should end.

The one concession to the social democratic wing of the Liberal Democrats was Nick Clegg’s blocking of the central pillar of Beecroft’s report, which was to allow employers to dismiss any employee at any time without fault on the employees behalf. For this, we should be glad; as we reported last week, it is a terrible idea:

This would leave it entirely at the employer’s discretion to decide whether or not someone was under performing, with no system for reviewing the problem, putting in measures for improving the person, taking account of illness or the contribution of poor management to the poor performance. You cannot seriously propose to have an employment system based on hire and fire at will.

The aim behind all of these reforms is to boost the economy, but as we have reported again and again and again, cutting workers rights will do no such thing.

As Nicola Smith reported in January:

During its last period in office the Labour government introduced a number of measures which improved rights at work – for example providing employees with protection from unfair dismissal after a year of employment, introducing the minimum wage and introducing entitlements to more generous maternity leave.

The empirical evidence demonstrates that these measures did not have negative impacts on employment levels – indeed prior to the global recession employment rates were at their highest for decades. The reality is that strong employment rates are a concequence of a country’s overall economic strength, not its level of employment protection.

Sarah Ibrahim in October:

[Dr John Philpott, the chief economic adviser at the chartered institute of personnel and development] says that the evidence is that less job protection encourages hiring in boom periods but increased firing in bust periods. It therefore makes employment rates less stable during the economic cycle.

However, it does not change the fundamentals – the number of people in secure employment. He strongly takes the view that this will be detrimental for the long term prosperity of the economy by undermining any spirit of engagement between staff and management. It seems out a bad signal to people at a time when they are already feeling vulnerable.

And Richard Excell, with the killer evidence:

By international standards, the UK does not have a tightly regulated labour market. If we take the OECD’s index of labour market regulation, the UK is right down at the bottom of the table. As the chart below shows, only the USA has a less regulated labour market.

Employment-protection-2008

As Mehdi Hassan pointed out this morning:

Those who claim link between cutting red tape and job creation have to first explain why America has nine per cent unemployment.

Between scrapping employment rights, real terms cuts in benefits, and the moves to stop the poor having too many kids, it is clear that there is one group of class warriors in parliament, and they’re the Bullingdon boys running the country.

See also:

• Cameron continues Gideon’s race to the bottom – Alex Hern, October 26th 2011

• Reducing job security won’t decrease unemployment – Sara Ibrahim, October 4th 2011

• Gideon’s grotesque attempt to blame workers’ rights for unemployment – Richard Exell, October 3rd 2011

• Osborne dreaming of a race to the bottom – Alex Hern, October 3rd 2011

• Cutting workers’ rights will not increase employment – Nicola Smith, January 10th 2011

http://twitter.com/patrickosgood/status/139298489527054336 Patrick Osgood

Cable falls in line with Beecroft's anti-worker voodoo economics: http://t.co/yDwMdkQ0 by @alexhern
http://twitter.com/lorsdors/status/139298618891976704 Lors Dors

Cable falls in line with Beecroft's anti-worker voodoo economics: http://t.co/yDwMdkQ0 by @alexhern
http://twitter.com/tedbrown08/status/139298942016946176 Edward Brown

Cable falls in line with Beecroft's anti-worker voodoo economics: http://t.co/yDwMdkQ0 by @alexhern
http://twitter.com/prateekbuch Prateek Buch

Sorry Alex but I have to take issue with this post.

Firstly, I’m sure you appreciate that the increased dependence on arbitration and mediation is a good thing? The more claims settled before landing in court the better I’d have thought – correct me if I’m wrong.

Secondly, dismissing Beecroft’s central policy recommendation of ‘fire-at-will’ isn’t just a side-effect – it demonstrates that Lib Dems won’t allow the arbitrary dilution of workers’ rights. It might be useful to imagine what a government without Lib Dems in it would be doing to workers’ rights at this time as a counterfactual scenario and then think again.

This doesn’t diminish your central point that focussing on reducing workers’ employment protection is unlikely to lead to economic growth – I agree with that and have said so before.
Rupertreadrules

‎’Making it easy to ‘hire & fire’ people’ is unspeak, spin.. What they mean of course is simply: making it easy to FIRE people..
Ray_North

Vince Cable’s announcement this morning are disgraceful – I never thought that I would see Cable as the man to undo much of the progress that has been made in the world of employment rights over the last thirty years.
On a similar subject we address the issue of youth unemployment on Allthatsleft today:
http://www.allthatsleft.co.uk/2011/06/a-true-story-about-heroin/
Blarg1987

I think the main concern is like when tuition fees were introduced once you open the floodgates, things can only go one way.
I agree the Lib Dems are good at holding the goverment back on this policy, but it could backfire for them at the next election if the Conservatives say the economy is improving or stable etc, while the Lib Dems will only be known for going against the proposal to scrap tuition fees
http://twitter.com/rattlecans/status/139483400007454720 Rattlecans

#Newsnight reporting on Vince Cable's worker-bashing; once more, here's why it's not only abhorrent but won't work: http://t.co/yDwMdkQ0
http://twitter.com/alextotheg/status/139483694019780609 Alex 

#Newsnight reporting on Vince Cable's worker-bashing; once more, here's why it's not only abhorrent but won't work: http://t.co/yDwMdkQ0
http://twitter.com/unitelondon/status/139483946974068737 Unite London&Eastern

#Newsnight reporting on Vince Cable's worker-bashing; once more, here's why it's not only abhorrent but won't work: http://t.co/yDwMdkQ0
http://twitter.com/labour_dave/status/139484285957713920 David Marsden

#Newsnight reporting on Vince Cable's worker-bashing; once more, here's why it's not only abhorrent but won't work: http://t.co/yDwMdkQ0
http://twitter.com/konnolsky/status/139485041679020033 Pavel Konnolsky

#Newsnight reporting on Vince Cable's worker-bashing; once more, here's why it's not only abhorrent but won't work: http://t.co/yDwMdkQ0
http://twitter.com/gralegav/status/139485259355013121 Gavin H

#Newsnight reporting on Vince Cable's worker-bashing; once more, here's why it's not only abhorrent but won't work: http://t.co/yDwMdkQ0
http://twitter.com/weberolivier/status/139486007681753089 Olivier Weber

RT @leftfootfwd: Cable falls in line with Beecroft's anti-worker voodoo economics http://t.co/mLhrvAh9
http://twitter.com/silverbullit730/status/139486217531170817 Jamal Barry

#Newsnight reporting on Vince Cable's worker-bashing; once more, here's why it's not only abhorrent but won't work: http://t.co/yDwMdkQ0
http://twitter.com/staffsunison/status/139502374891958272 Staffordshire UNISON

#Newsnight reporting on Vince Cable's worker-bashing; once more, here's why it's not only abhorrent but won't work: http://t.co/yDwMdkQ0
http://twitter.com/Newsbot9 Newsbot9

There is already arbitration once a tribunal is filed for. All this means is that an unwillingness to “settle” for part of an award will be held against the employee.

“Secondly, dismissing Beecroft’s central policy recommendation of ‘fire-at-will’ isn’t just a side-effect – it demonstrates that Lib Dems won’t allow the arbitrary dilution of workers’ rights”

No. just calculating that THIS time it’s not acceptable, that other attacks need to be made first. The UK needs far far STRONGER rights, not weaker ones.

“It might be useful to imagine what a government without Lib Dems in it would be doing to workers’ rights at this time”

No meaningful difference.
http://twitter.com/bbri439/status/139592675140706304 brian hocknull

#Newsnight reporting on Vince Cable's worker-bashing; once more, here's why it's not only abhorrent but won't work: http://t.co/yDwMdkQ0
http://twitter.com/clashcitywomble/status/139626976934760448 Andy Gritton

#Newsnight reporting on Vince Cable's worker-bashing; once more, here's why it's not only abhorrent but won't work: http://t.co/yDwMdkQ0
http://dwgism.livejournal.com/ DGillon

So anyone working for an employer with 10 or less employees will suddenly find themselves able to be blackmailed into doing whatever the employer wants without recourse to law. Meanwhile, open management bullying will be disguised as ‘protected conversations’ and workers will be pressured into accepting ‘compromise agreements’ to leave them redundant just to stop the bullying – which is effectively Beescroft’s proposal under another name. I’ve advised enough people being bullied by management over disability issues, supposedly with greater protection than most through DDA and now EA, to know exactly how the system will work in practice if people are left with no protection whatsoever, no matter the LibDems’ claim they’re actually protecting workers.

The longer the Coalition lasts the more I’m embarrassed for the LibDems, a party I once admired for their ethical stance even if I didn’t support their policies.
http://twitter.com/maternitycawcho/status/143754669779468288 Camron Ashton

http://t.co/jbH5qivA Cable falls in line with Beecroft's anti-worker voodoo economics – Left Foot Forward