My Lords, I have always been a strong supporter of employees owning shares in the companies that they work for, particularly smaller companies. In my own history, virtually everyone had shares in the company that I built up in the 1980s and 1990s. Obviously, the principle is observable in groups like John Lewis. It is self-evidently very positive, not just commercially but when people feel part of the business for which they are working.
Anyone is being blind if they do not perceive that employment law has strayed across the boundary of discouraging employment. There are good reasons for much employee protection, a cause that has been fought for over almost 200 years. However, we are now in an area where—dare I say?—there would not have been just 1 million new jobs created over the past year; if employment law was not so discouraging of taking on new people, there might have been 2 million new jobs. Again, in my own history I have seen too often how people are put off by the costs and risks involved. This House is slightly out of touch if it does not perceive that employment law actually discourages us in succeeding economically and producing more jobs.
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I have to say that when the scheme was proposed, I was somewhat sceptical. I did not quite see the logic of tying the two together, but I am by nature a contrarian and as the great and the good were all frightfully critical, I thought the scheme deserved better investigation and consideration. On balance, I think it is a perfectly
sensible and reasonable trade off. It is obviously not suitable for everybody; it is not going to be of any interest to individuals who, candidly, are just working for the pay and are not involved in or supportive of the enterprise for which they are working but, as I have said previously, it will be of great interest to those who are ambitious, who have confidence in their own ability and who want to work hard and make a success of the business they are working for. Why should they not have a worthwhile stake in that? It will also be of interest to those who have worked for a business for a number of years and become part of its woodwork. In both cases, the key point is that people have the self-confidence to believe that what they contribute to the business is that which ensures their employment.