Grasping the Nettle of Employment Issues

It is well-established that the Government is seeking to support employers and take steps to encourage them to employ more people. What is a continuing mystery is why it repeatedly ignores the areas of greatest concern (the extremely high costs of employment, general removal of the default retirement age, failure to address the unwillingness of the employment tribunals to appropriately use powers already given to them etc). At the end of last year, another furore broke out when the compensated no fault dismissal proposed by Adrian Beecroft was leaked to the press. At the time the outcry was so great that you would have thought he was proposing the boiling alive of errant employees and serving them for tea with mint sauce. The proposals could still see the light of day, albeit in a modified form and limited to specific areas, such as new micro-companies. Nothing more has been heard about the proposals very recently, so we will have to wait and see.



It has been posited that many businesses would hire more people if it wasn't so difficult to let them go, for example, if they underperform, if times get tight, etc. I agree entirely that employers are struggling under a ridiculous burden of cost, excessive administration and a slowly increasing culture of reduced work ethic and personal accountability and far greater insistence on 'human rights' (these are so often misunderstood and misquoted by employees that I wonder if they have any idea of what they're asking for). The experience we've had with employment tribunals (even where we win, which is the norm) is so crazily uncommercial that one of our team refers to the tribunal experience as 'going to the casino'.

But I don't agree that legislation is necessarily the problem. We are where we are and at least we know what to expect from the tribunals. There are other factors, including the way that employers manage. What are we as employers doing to manage in an appropriate and business-like fashion? Ask yourself this question: are all of your employees meeting all of your reasonable standards nearly all the time? 98% of you reading this will turn a little pink at the ears and admit that - ahem, maybe a few of the team are performing a bit below par. That's not the Government's fault, the tribunal's fault or anyone's fault. But if you haven't dealt with it, you are simply colluding in all the things you complain about employees doing wrong. It is really quite easy to sort out if you choose to do so. If you need guidance, there are a plethora of good books out there, including How to Get Top Marks in ... Managing Poor Work Performance (well, I would say that wouldn't I?!)

There is no evidence that Mr Beecroft's proposals would stimulate growth because as a solution it tinkers at the edges, but doesn't address the underlying issues. I also have concerns that poor employers would use it to exploit employees. I may be very robust in my approach, but I cannot condone exploitation of employees, simply because an employer has not done his or her job properly. We have a duty to manage ethically as well as firmly.

As ever, the Government has not taken the comments of employers into consideration. In April the new two year service qualification rule comes into force. It didn't work before and it won't work this time either. As many employers have done, I have written to Dr Cable several times to express my concerns, but haven't even had the courtesy of a reply. I have no real belief that the Government understands SME business' needs and wishes (which makes up 65%+ of UK business); therefore they will fail to fix anything and employers will continue to employ reluctantly and only as the act of last resort.

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