Maestro Pressure Coolers – Daily Blog 24/11/11

Unfair Dismissal

A distinguished venture capitalist has written a report requested by the prime minister about employment practice and specifically about dismissal protections and unfair dismissal rights. As most employers know, it is extremely difficult to dismiss an employee with more than 2 years service however unproductive they may be. The report has suggested that the whole concept of unfair dismissal and the huge compensation that can be awarded if it is proven be scrapped.

Sarah Veale, head of the equality and employment rights department at the TUC, described the proposals as “profoundly unjust” and said Mr Cameron should “throw the report straight in the bin”.

There were less than a million unfair dismissal claims last year which was “absolutely nothing” out of a large workforce, said Ms Veale

A million unfair dismissal claims in one year is nothing??? Has this lady ever been to an employment tribunal, does she have any idea of the aggravation, headache and expense it can cause to a small business struggling to survive? That’s a million people trying to claw back money from employers instead of getting a life and looking for a new job.

Shadow business secretary Chuka Umunna told BBC News: “I find it absolutely extraordinary that the government should be preoccupying itself with how it can make it easier to fire people when in that context it should be looking at how it can make it easier to hire people.”

Does Mr Umunna realise that in fact hiring and firing are linked? If a business knows it can get rid of people when necessary it is much more likely to hire them in the first place.

We should be thankful that the UK does have relatively liberal employment laws by European standards. They help to differentiate us from the sickly southern European countries that suffer from youth unemployment of up to 50% and a complete absence of growth. Businesses and especially small employers need to be nurtured and protected from litigious bureaucracy. Therein lies our best hope of future growth and escape from the recessionary spiral.