STUC hits out at staff dismissal proposals

THE SCOTTISH Trades Union Congress yesterday condemned proposals to make the firing of workers easier as the Deputy Prime Minister fuelled a coalition split over the issue.

Nick Clegg said he did not support the controversial “compensated no-fault dismissal” scheme laid out in a report prepared for Vince Cable’s Business Department by venture capitalist Adrian Beecroft.

The document calls for compensation to be capped at £12,000 for employees removed under the scheme — a situation Mr Beecroft said would make the plan more acceptable to workers and unions and eliminate many employment tribunal cases for constructive dismissal.

The Deputy Prime Minister rejected the proposals, saying there was no evidence that creating fear and insecurity among workers was an effective way of creating new employment.

He said: “I don’t support them and I never have. I’ve not seen any evidence that creating industrial-scale insecurity amongst millions of workers is a way of securing new jobs.”

STUC general secretary Grahame Smith questioned the report’s independence and called for it to be ditched altogether.

He said: “Once again the Government is proposing changes to legislation that affect the rights of people to be treated fairly at work and undermine the efforts of trade unions to protect their members and to provide fairer working conditions for all.

“They have already changed the qualification period for unfair dismissal to two years, are proposing to charge fees for lodging claims at employment tribunals and now believe that employment rights should be further eroded.

“This Government can no longer claim that we are all in this together because clearly they have no interest in workers being treated fairly at work.

“The report from Adrian Beecroft, a Conservative Party supporting venture capitalist, is quite clearly causing their coalition partners some difficulty.

“It is not acceptable that public policy is being decided in such a shambolic fashion and we should also remind ourselves that, in the past, the Government have ignored truly independent reports into health and safety regulations and lay member involvement in employment tribunals.

“The Government should ignore the content of this report — but unfortunately this attack fits perfectly with the Conservative Party right wing ideology on stripping workplace protections from employees.”

Mr Beecroft’s report was published early after being leaked and the dismissal scheme has since been described by Liberal Democrat Business Secretary Vince Cable as “complete nonsense”.

Tory MPS have suggested the move would encourage businesses to hire workers by removing concerns they may not be able to afford to get rid of underperforming staff.

Downing Street has made clear David Cameron has not dismissed the proposal out of hand.

A spokeswoman said the Prime Minister was weighing up options for making it easier for businesses to employ people and achieve growth, but was not “wedded” to any particular solution.