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03/10/2011
Businesses Asked To Assess Employment Laws
UK businesses are to be consulted on proposed changes to the regulations and protections of employment law, in what the Government have called the "Red Tape Challenge".
The Department of Business said on Monday it would be reassessing regulations on collective redundancies, employment agencies, immigration checks, the National Minimum Wage and statutory sick pay, and would be consulting employers on how they should be changed.
However, a number of unions have hit out at the consultation process, which uses a website to poll business owners, saying the initiative is undermining health and safety legislation and the rights of workers.
According to the Government, the campaign asks for a variety of suggestions about how regulations can be "improved, simplified or even abolished", while Conservative Business Minister David Willets claimed that employment regulations were a "burden".
"Businesses regularly tell us that the burden of regulation is too high. So today we are giving them a chance to tell us exactly which rules they think need to be reformed. The Government is committed to growth and the Red Tape Challenge is one way to make sure that we are getting out of the way and letting businesses do what they do best - taking people on and boosting the economy.”
The so called Red Tape Challenge was tackled during the Trade Union Congress meeting in September when USDAW Deputy General Secretary Paddy Lillis rubbished the then proposed campaign saying employment rights and basic regulations covering the workplace were "at the heart of getting a decent deal for workers".
"The Government says it wants to tackle over-regulation, reduce bureaucracy and cut red tape but in reality it is an attack on workers' employment rights. It's about reducing the rules and regulations that employers have to comply with. What the Tories mean by red tape is the existence of basic rights for people at work," Mr Lillis said during the conference.
He added: "The Government seems to blame basic employment rights as being in some way responsible for the slow economic recovery. They are wrong. The economic downturn was not caused by excess regulation, but by unregulated financial markets. There is no evidence that deregulation creates jobs."
(DW)
The Department of Business said on Monday it would be reassessing regulations on collective redundancies, employment agencies, immigration checks, the National Minimum Wage and statutory sick pay, and would be consulting employers on how they should be changed.
However, a number of unions have hit out at the consultation process, which uses a website to poll business owners, saying the initiative is undermining health and safety legislation and the rights of workers.
According to the Government, the campaign asks for a variety of suggestions about how regulations can be "improved, simplified or even abolished", while Conservative Business Minister David Willets claimed that employment regulations were a "burden".
"Businesses regularly tell us that the burden of regulation is too high. So today we are giving them a chance to tell us exactly which rules they think need to be reformed. The Government is committed to growth and the Red Tape Challenge is one way to make sure that we are getting out of the way and letting businesses do what they do best - taking people on and boosting the economy.”
The so called Red Tape Challenge was tackled during the Trade Union Congress meeting in September when USDAW Deputy General Secretary Paddy Lillis rubbished the then proposed campaign saying employment rights and basic regulations covering the workplace were "at the heart of getting a decent deal for workers".
"The Government says it wants to tackle over-regulation, reduce bureaucracy and cut red tape but in reality it is an attack on workers' employment rights. It's about reducing the rules and regulations that employers have to comply with. What the Tories mean by red tape is the existence of basic rights for people at work," Mr Lillis said during the conference.
He added: "The Government seems to blame basic employment rights as being in some way responsible for the slow economic recovery. They are wrong. The economic downturn was not caused by excess regulation, but by unregulated financial markets. There is no evidence that deregulation creates jobs."
(DW)
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