The
government is continuing in its efforts to remove rights to Employment
Protection.
This is the
right of workers to have the security of knowing that cannot be sacked by their
bosses without good reason. Any attempt to remove these rights would take us
back to Victorian times –
The initial
plan was simply to remove the right to claim for Unfair Dismissal. This was put
forward on the spurious grounds that it would remove red tape and stimulate the
economy. Why is the right to a fair dismissal reduced to such cynical language?
We are talking here about peoples’ livelihoods.
The plans
to abolish the right altogether were abandoned but have been replaced by new proposals
which are equally disturbing. The idea now is to slash the levels of
compensation. If you win a claim for Unfair Dismissal you get damages under two
headings. You get a Basic Award to reflect that you were dismissed unfairly. This
is normally linked to the number of years of continuous employment. Then you
get a compensatory award which is mainly for loss of earnings. The present cap
for compensatory award is £73k. Under the new rules this will be reduced to
just £26k or a years pay whichever is lower. So if you are on £12k a year that
is all you get. If you are on £60k a year you get £26k. It does not take a
genius to see that some unscrupulous employers will do the sums and decide to
sack for no reason and pay the lower amount.
This is on
top of existing plans to make claimants pay fees to Tribunals. It could cost
well over £1k to take a case to a Hearing. This is a double whammy. It will
deter many workers from pursuing claims. They have just lost their job so they
are hardly going to be in a position to shell out that sort of money. And it
will be an incentive for employers to fight all cases in the knowledge that
many sacked workers will lose heart as the bills are racked up.
All of this
seems to be designed to make it increasingly difficult if not impossible to
bring a dismissal claim.
Taking away
the rights of people to protect their rights is the same as removing those very
rights.
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