You
may have seen a consultation will be opened for discussion on the UK’s
apparently ‘too complex’ dismissal rules this week.
Business
Secretary Vince Cable has called on evidence to discuss the idea of
‘no-fault dismissals’ for businesses with fewer than 10 employees, in an
attempt to instil new confidence of hiring new staff. This would mean an
employee could be sacked with a payment of a set amount of compensation,
otherwise a yet to be defined, no fault ‘pay off’.
The
Government has said the idea was that small firms would be able to dismiss a
worker where no fault had been identified on the part of the employee, without
taking into account performance or meeting of targets etc.
We are
going to put our two pence worth into the consultation. Our concern is that
this will, like the increase of the unfair dismissal qualifying period to two
years post 6th April, mean a hike in discrimination claims, i.e. aggrieved
employees will look for another route to make a claim against an employer. Furthermore
it simply means more hassle, which is the exact notion that the Government is
making attempts to combat.
From
an individual perspective, would you want to work in a business that could sack
you at any point through no fault of your own?
