My hon. Friend makes a very good point; I could not agree more.
The Chancellor proclaimed that the proposal represented
“owners, workers and the taxman, all in it together,”
but the measure is divisive, goes against the spirit of one nation and risks creating a two-tier labour market across the country.
Offering employee owner contracts, where employees effectively sell their employment rights for shares, is unlikely, if ever, to deliver the highly motivated, engaged work force employers need. Ministers should be making it easier to hire employees, not easier to fire them.
Labour’s jobs plan includes tax breaks for small firms taking on extra employees. Labour supports employee ownership, but not coupling it with slashing employment rights. The US National Centre for Employee Ownership, one of the world’s leading groups promoting share ownership, has also criticised the scheme. The proposal smacks of fire at will. Although Ministers, including the Business Secretary, have claimed they are not going to take forward Mr Beecroft’s fire at will proposals, in practice they are introducing them by the back door. Ministers are trying to introduce the scheme without proper consultation or discussion, or indeed any real support.
The way the scheme will operate in practice and its ramifications are unclear. There are concerns about other ways in which the scheme could have an adverse impact on employees. Will jobs be advertised as being only employee owner and will employers be able to impose the scheme on individual employees or groups of employees? What safeguards will there be to ensure that the scheme is voluntary for existing employees, as Ministers claim?
The clause is a disaster for all, be they employees or employers, and it will not deliver growth in our economy. Businesses that utilise the scheme in recruiting will be
recruiting from a smaller pool of talent, which will risk their not being able to take advantage if ever a real recovery comes about.
People giving up their hard-fought employment rights in return for a few shares beggars belief and takes this country back to the dark ages of employment practice. I ask that the clause be dropped.