Adrian Beecroft’s suggestions to lift some of the burden which employment regulation places on business deserve a fuller consideration than they appear to be getting from the government. The proposals are serious, are practical rather than ideological, and have clearly benefited from expert advice.
The proposal to abolish the concept of unfair dismissal is a bold one. The plan is to introduce ‘no-fault dismissal’, compensated at the same rate as redundancy. As I suggested in an earlier blog post, this proposal probably needs more detailed work if it is to avoid pitfalls such as claims that it is discriminatory or a way round EU rules on consultation over redundancy. And new contracts protecting their position would no doubt be written for individuals or groups of workers with sufficient bargaining power, as was the case before Geoffrey Howe introduced the concept of unfair dismissal under Edward Heath.
Nevertheless such radicalism could have a salutary effect on productivity in some areas, particularly in the public sector, and by removing the threat of unfair dismissal (and particularly constructive dismissal) claims, would produce greater certainty for employers. Uncertainty about the meaning and scope of badly-drafted employment law is one of the prime reasons for the growth of tribunal claims.
Liberal Democrats have been scathing about the view that reducing employment protection will lead to more jobs being created. While it is fair to say that the short-run evidence on this is ambiguous, it is well established in the literature that employment protection benefits ‘insiders’ at the expense of ‘outsiders’, and restricts opportunities for young people in particular to enter lasting jobs. At a time when youth unemployment is a huge concern, this is an important consideration.
Very small ‘micro-businesses’, with less than ten employees, are said to be inhibited from taking on workers by the fear that they will not easily be able to dismiss poor performers. While Mr Beecroft’s proposals will not make dismissal costless for employers, it will reduce the cost and uncertainty. Over time this might be expected to make taking on staff more attractive.
This would be even more likely if the government adopted Mr Beecroft’s suggestions for making micro-businesses exempt from some legislative requirements (for example, automatic enrolment for pensions), and able to opt out of others (flexible parental leave).
The Beecroft Report’s recognition that very small businesses are qualitatively different from larger enterprises (in matters such as ambition, experience and administrative skills) is very welcome. This recognition has been behind some of the labour market reforms successfully introduced in Germany. Critics argue that exemptions and opt-outs will create a ‘spike’ in firm sizes, with owners reluctant to grow beyond, for example, ten employees. While this is a danger which needs to be carefully thought through, we should bear in mind that we already have such a spike at zero employees. Arguably taking on the first employee is the highest hurdle of all: there are three and a half million one-person outfits which might be tempted to take someone on in a more liberal framework.
Amongst other sensible suggestions made in the report are changes to the work permit system (which is very irksome for small businesses), the restriction of requirements for equal pay audits, the abolition of the Gangmasters Licensing Authority (set up as a kneejerk reaction to a tragedy at Morecambe and working poorly), shorter periods of consultation over redundancies, and a removal of ‘gold plating’ from some European directives (such as TUPE).
He also makes a good case for simplifying employment agency regulations and scrapping the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate.
It is a pity that Mr Beecroft’s draft proposals for going slowly on implementing flexible working and scrapping some regulations on employment of children were redacted by a nervous business department.
But what is left remains too important to be rubbished in the manner that the Liberal Democrats and the Opposition seem to be doing. In private, politicians of all parties will admit that much labour law in Britain and the EU is ill-thought-out, rarely achieves its stated goals, protects vested interests and is costly for employers and thus restricts employment. In public, however, they don’t seem prepared to do anything significant about it.
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