Employment plan ‘to cause friction’

Tensions are expected to mount within the Coalition this week when an extreme plan to change employment restrictions is published. Venture capitalist Adrian Beecroft carried out a study which is expected to say businesses should have more flexibility to make staff redundant, and that equality rules should be eased to create jobs. There will be a warm welcome for some of the proposals from the Conservatives, and it is thought that the Prime Minister, who commissioned the study, could offer his support to the plans. The Sunday Telegraph wrote that the reforms – urged by Mr Beecroft, who is a Conservative Party donor – will include an end to the required 90-day consultation period when a firm is looking at making redundancies. He will instead say there should be a 30-day period, and a five-day period for emergencies if a business is severely distressed. Another planned reform is to put a cap on the amount of compensation which employees can be handed as loss of earnings after making a successful unfair dismissal claim. The payments can often ring in at hundreds of thousands of pounds. The rights that workers can “carry” over to new employers when the firm they work for is taken over would also be reformed. At the moment, the transfer of undertakings (TUPE) rights create large disparities between employees and employers. It will also be proposed that the Equality Act is scrapped. This Act makes employers liable to claims from workers for “third party harassment”. This would include customers speaking to staff in a “sexist” way in a restaurant, for example. Our Employment team provides advice on the employment aspects of all major business decisions. For advice, contact a member of the team, call us on 08456 381381 or email employment@ibblaw.co.uk.