0:00
the government were going to make it a
0:02
lot harder for employers to fire
0:05
employees, but uh there's been another
0:08
The government has backtracked on a
0:11
previous promise it made in its
0:13
manifesto to give workers a load of
0:16
protection from day one of employment.
0:20
The change specifically relates from
0:22
unfair dismissal from day one and it had
0:24
been a massive massive gripe of
0:27
businesses uh when Labour first proposed
0:30
it. So you had all the industry groups
0:33
really worried that it would basically
0:35
make employers shrivel up, freeze up,
0:38
not employ uh people in the way that
0:40
they were because they were afraid of
0:42
these either really vexacious lawsuits
0:45
or just worried that uh they would have
0:48
really timeconsuming negotiations with
0:51
employees. So uh businesses are cheering
0:53
it. Uh but it is a manifesto promise
0:56
break. So what would have happened would
0:58
be you'd have interviewed me for a job,
1:00
thought he he looks okay, let's hire
1:03
him, and then if I turn out to be a
1:04
complete dud, you would have then not
1:07
been able to to get rid of me that
1:10
Not as easily. You would uh as as I say,
1:12
it's an unfair dismissal. The employer
1:15
could reasonably make a case and say
1:17
this was fair dismissal. The employee
1:19
was rubbish. But that doesn't stop the
1:23
employee from challenging it at
1:24
employment tribunal. doesn't stop. Say
1:27
you're a small employer, you having to
1:28
put loads of resources into sort of
1:31
defending this tribunal. So yeah, it's a
1:35
massive boon to employers not to have to
1:38
But a lot of uh Labour's promised uh
1:40
workers rights reforms are still going
1:43
Yeah, that's exactly right. This is one
1:45
small part of a massive massive suite of
1:48
measures that the government was elected
1:50
on. So they include getting rid of what
1:53
they call exploitative zero hours
1:54
contracts. So not outlawing them
1:56
outright but um giving every single
1:58
worker the option not to have a zero
2:00
hours contract. Banning fire and rehire
2:03
measure that is actually universally
2:05
popular but then also all sorts of
2:08
rights from day one within within which
2:10
this uh unfair dismissal uh U-turn
2:13
comes. So there's also statutory sick
2:15
pay from day one which businesses are
2:18
very worried about. There are uh all
2:20
sorts of rights on maternity leave and
2:22
paternity leave which have been less of
2:24
a concern of businesses, but they're all
2:26
still going ahead and this is just one
2:28
little I guess potential bone thrown to
2:32
the industry uh bodies and and indeed
2:34
the lords because the government was
2:36
struggling to get it past the lords in
2:38
order to get the policy through. I was
2:39
going to ask, do you think this was
2:41
somewhat of a um an olive branch to
2:45
business after yet another budget that
2:48
hasn't been universally welcomed by
2:50
business? I think that's definitely an
2:53
element of it, but I think the reality
2:56
from what I've I've picked up is that
2:59
the government and unions were really
3:01
worried that it wasn't going to get onto
3:04
what's called the statute book in time
3:06
for all these policies to be introduced
3:08
in April. the lords had been really
3:10
pushing back in the way that businesses
3:12
were on the fallout of employment or
3:16
unemployment and so had basically not
3:18
been ratifying or signing off on on the
3:21
uh policy as a whole thing which which
3:24
you need to do. Um so and and pressure
3:27
was mounting mounting mounting and this
3:29
is basically the concession that the
3:31
government has made in order for it to
3:33
all go through in time for the first
3:36
policies to be introduced in April.
