Bosses slam plan to give volunteers 3 days off

DAVID Cameron was facing a business backlash last night over plans to force big firms to give staff time off to do voluntary work.

The Prime Minister sought to revive his vision of a ‘Big Society’ by unveiling plans to allow 15million workers take three paid days off each year to volunteer.

Mr Cameron said the move would help create a ‘better, more motivated workforce – and it’s good for our society too’.

But business leaders lined up to criticise the ‘heavy-handed’ move, warning that it could cost billions. The Institute of Directors said it would effectively extend guaranteed paid leave from 28 days a year to 31, creating ‘big issues’ for many employers. Director-general Simon Walker said the policy ‘does not appear to have been thought through at all’.

‘Passing a law to compel firms to pay their staff to volunteer for charity is hardly in keeping with the spirit of philanthropy,’ he said. ‘The architects of this idea cannot pretend that forcing firms to give an additional three days of paid leave will do anything other than add costs.’

Mr Walker added: ‘The essence of vol-

unteering is that it is voluntary. We would welcome proposals to incentivise and make it easier for companies to facilitate volunteering, but it has to be a choice.’

His comments were echoed by business leaders, who demanded to know why it should be a matter for government regulation. Tim Thomas, of the manufacturers’ organisation EEF, said many firms already supported voluntary work by staff. But he added: ‘Employers will want clarity over whether this is an additional right to paid leave, and confirmation that they are able to take the final decision of when the leave is taken.

‘It must also be made clear that businesses won’t be obliged to facilitate the volunteering themselves.’

Andy Silvester, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: ‘Even the most back-of-a-fag-packet calculation shows that this policy is going to cost taxpayers billions.’

And in an embarrassing development, the TUC welcomed Mr Cameron’s announcement, saying it would give activists an extra three days a year to devote to union organising.

The new right would apply to all people working for firms with more than 2 0 staff and all employees in the public sector. Communities Secretary Eric Pickles yesterday dodged questions about how the extra leave would be funded, but suggested employers would have to foot the bill.

Labour said the plan could cost schools and hospitals £1billion a year. Lisa Nandy, party spokesman for civil society, said: ‘If just half of public sector workers took this up, it would be the time equivalent of around 2,000 nurses, 800 police and almost 3,000 teachers.’

Mr Cameron last night defended the initiative as a ‘brilliant idea’.

He told Channel 4 News: ‘What this is about is saying to people who want to put more into communities, who want to help others, that we’re on your side, we want to help you to do that. It’s a great scheme.’