Thursday, October 27, 2011
Liberal Democrats defend workers rights in government
The Guardian reports that Business Secretary, Vince Cable has rejected plans promoted by David Cameron's chief strategist, Steve Hilton, to abolish unfair dismissal laws because they are "unnecessary, based on no evidence and unlikely to improve labour market flexibility".
The paper quotes Cable's aides as saying that the proposals would do nothing to promote growth as 25 million consumers would face job insecurity and find it more difficult to get a mortgage, hitting government efforts to boost growth.
They add that one of Nick Clegg's most senior parliamentary aides, Norman Lamb, went further than Cable, describing the proposals as madness:
Passages of the report, prepared for Downing Street by the Conservative donor and venture capitalist Adrian Beecroft, were leaked on Wednesday.
He proposed removing all rights to claim unfair dismissal, replacing it with a right to seek a redundancy payment. He said current employment protection laws addressed yesterday's problems and that even if it meant employers could sack staff simply because they did not like them, it was a price worth paying.
Cable's aides said the report would not be published, and it was neither an official report or officially commissioned.
Once again the Liberal Democrats are acting as a bulwark against the worst excesses of the Tory right wing.
The paper quotes Cable's aides as saying that the proposals would do nothing to promote growth as 25 million consumers would face job insecurity and find it more difficult to get a mortgage, hitting government efforts to boost growth.
They add that one of Nick Clegg's most senior parliamentary aides, Norman Lamb, went further than Cable, describing the proposals as madness:
Passages of the report, prepared for Downing Street by the Conservative donor and venture capitalist Adrian Beecroft, were leaked on Wednesday.
He proposed removing all rights to claim unfair dismissal, replacing it with a right to seek a redundancy payment. He said current employment protection laws addressed yesterday's problems and that even if it meant employers could sack staff simply because they did not like them, it was a price worth paying.
Cable's aides said the report would not be published, and it was neither an official report or officially commissioned.
Once again the Liberal Democrats are acting as a bulwark against the worst excesses of the Tory right wing.
