Leaked government paper proposes abolishing unfair dismissal claims for ’unproductive workers’

Published on 27 Oct 2011 under category: article

Article from The Lawyer, 26 October 2011, by Vanessa Wozniak.

Employment lawyers have hit back at a leaked government paper that proposes abolishing unfair dismissal claims for ’unproductive workers’, stressing it would rob all employees of basic legal protection.

The paper, commissioned by Prime Minister David Cameron and written by Conservative party donor Adrian Beecroft, claims that under current rules workers are allowed to “coast along, secure in the knowledge that employers will be reluctant to dismiss them”.

Beecroft states that replacing underperforming workers with more capable ones would boost the economy.

However, Old Square Chambers employment barrister Anya Palmer branded the paper “an outrageous proposal”.
“It isn’t just about underperforming employees,” she said. “Any employee could be sacked and, unless they could prove discrimination, would have no right to compensation other than a small fixed payment. Beecroft says that’s a price worth paying. How many voters will agree?”

The right and wrongs of unfair dismissal

David Buckle, Cubism Law, Employment Solicitor believes that existing laws give employers adequate opportunity to dismiss employees who are failing to perform.

“The current rules allow for fair dismissal of unproductive employees and the suggested change is unnecessary. Worse still, one of the main requirements of small businesses at a time of economic crisis is the need for certainty. Tinkering with employment laws is very likely to be counterproductive as it will require them to change their employment policies and rewrite contracts for all their staff.

Furthermore he argues that:

“It is also a fallacy that removing employment rights makes businesses more likely to create jobs. It makes it more likely people will be dismissed at will, creating an employment market with too much fluidity, which will add to the current economic uncertainty.”

According to the leaked government report the “terrible impact of the current unfair dismissal rules on the efficiency and hence competitiveness of our businesses, and on the effectiveness and cost of our public services” is a major issue for British enterprise.

In January, David Cameron unveiled the coalition government’s plans to get Britain back to work by reforming employment laws. A proposed ‘employers’ charter’ would mean that companies can sack workers during the first two years of their employment without the threat of being taken to an employment tribunal for unfair dismissal. Currently, workers who feel they are unfairly dismissed can make a claim after 12 months in a job.

In 2010-11 the cost to the taxpayer of running employment tribunals and the Employment Appeal Tribunal in England, Wales and Scotland was more than £84m but more than 80 per cent of applications did not result in a full hearing, according to the Ministry of Justice.

You can read more about Cubism Law's employment practice here.