THE woman who was told she was too old for redundancy pay.
The man who was told he would have to accept a pay cut or leave his job. And the workers who were told that if they did not agree to a reduction in their hours, their names would be put in a hat and one of them would be made redundant. These are just some of the cases Citizen's Advice Scotland (CAS) has highlighted as evidence for their conclusion that bad employers are taking advantage of the tight financial climate to treat employees badly.
In many ways, this testimony should come as no surprise. In recent years, workers have seen their pay eroded, hours extended and job security undermined. Some employers just like their staff have honestly had to make economies for long-term survival, but when employers use the economic situation as an excuse to crack down unfairly on pay and conditions as CAS says a minority are doing that is unacceptable, particularly as it is often the lowest paid who suffer most.
CAS has suggested the solution is to set up a new body called the Fair Employment Commission. The idea is that the commission would have the power to identify wrongdoing and punish employers who break the law and, on the face of it, this would seem like a fair idea.
However, employment rights are reserved to the UK Government and it would seem unlikely that a Prime Minister who once promised a bonfire of the quangos would agree to the establishment of a new one, with all its associated costs. This does not, of course, mean we should be content with the status quo. On the contrary: more should be done to protect workers at a time when they are open to abuse.
The solution lies in the long overdue reform of the employment tribunal system. Late last year, a report for David Cameron by the venture capitalist Adrian Beecroft suggested employers should be free to sack unproductive workers without comeback but the opposite should be the case: workers' rights should be protected by a tribunal system that is robust, clear and easily accessible. Unfortunately, the current system fails on all of these counts – it is expensive, slow and secretive and discourages employees from using it. If we are to protect workers such as those highlighted by CAS – indeed, any vulnerable employee threatened or abused by a bad employer the tribunal model needs to change.
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