CIPD says Beecroft recommendations would damage growth
Employment Law & HR update 18/06/2012
The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) has
warned that the recommendations made in the Beecroft Report on
unfair dismissal could damage employee relations and ultimately
fail to have the intended result.
In the CIPD’s official response to the report, their employee
relations advisor, Mike Emmot, said that watering down employment
regulations could open up a wide rang of issues concerning how
staff are treated by their employers. Emmot pulled no punches in
stating that a system for compensated no-fault dismissals would be
“objectionable and unnecessary”.
“It is objectionable because it would be a licence for bad
practice in managing people and damage the reputation of the whole
micro-business sector,” he explained. “It is unnecessary because
employers facing a possible tribunal claim can already offer the
employee a compromise agreement, and tailor the level of
compensation to the particular circumstances.”
He added that there were examples from across the globe of
countries that had implemented legislation that excluded small
businesses from unfair dismissal regulations – including Germany,
Australia and Spain – only to find that it failed to achieve the
intended result.
Emmot added, “There is no evidence that no-fault dismissal would
make a positive contribution to economic growth in the UK by
encouraging the smallest firms to recruit more employees. Indeed,
by increasing job insecurity and reducing employee engagement it
would be more likely to damage growth.”
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