As I walked to South Kensington tube station in the sunny early morning, a cavalcade of Blues and Royals’ horses clip-clop down the street, out for their early morning exercise. This normality was in stark contrast to the dire warnings for Londoners to go to work in jeans and jumpers on 1st - 2nd April, and so avoid being picked on by protesters of the G20 summit. In fact it is easy to pick out the lawyers, bankers, architects, or accountants and their support staff, regardless of what they wear, due to their bearing, (and their shoes!) So this seems a scaremongering tactic and is yet another example of the nation being told what to do, think and believe by the ‘powers that be’: and we do accept it! We should all exercise our right to freedom of speech, common sense and reasonable actions, not least when it comes to employment rules and regulations.
Are we all immoral employers lacking ethics?
Moral fibre, core values, ethical practices – are all the stuff of dreams it would seem in today’s commercial world: or so one would assume if you scrutinise employment legislation. According to Jonathan Djanogly (Conservative MP for Huntingdon) there have been approximately 20 Acts of Parliament and some 300 statutory instruments covering employment legislation since 1998. All were, I am sure, designed to improve the behaviour and treatment of staff by employers. From the legislation one may infer that employers have no moral fibre, are unethical etc., unless controlled by these laws. The tone of the legislation is based on an assumption that every organisation is managed by executives who are ‘out to con or deceive their staff’, and against whom the staff need protecting.
Gold plated legislation costs UK £76 billion over 10 years:
Yet the laws make no distinction between the large corporations and SMEs which make up @ 80% of all businesses in the UK. SMEs do not have the knowledge, resources, money or time to implement many of the now ‘gold plated’ requirements and regulations, before they might go under. This applies whether it is implementing maternity leave, flexible working, TUPE, redundancy processes, or statutory redundancy payment proposals: all are based on an unrealistic expectation of management in many of the UK’s businesses and a disregard for the application of common sense. These UK and EU regulations should be thoroughly overhauled, to develop better business habits, because at the moment they are not developing the desired behaviours and have, according to a Chamber of Commerce report cost the UK economy a staggering £76 billion over the last 10 years.
For example, we are seeing businesses going bankrupt daily, and many are not being rescued because of the hamper that TUPE presents. Whether a commercial or private enterprise, or not-for-profit organisation, the pressure is on to make sales, maintain client relationships and manage staff within unprecedented financial constraints – and yet where are the concessions to enable these smaller businesses to operate flexibly? Recent examples regarding TUPE rulings are truly extraordinary: in a law firm, staff were deemed to have transferred with the work – whether those staff wanted to move or not! A national firm of architects recently had to withhold benefits and freeze pay to avoid further redundancies, yet one member of staff is now claiming constructive dismissal: because: ‘I know my rights’. As the largest employer in the UK, the Public Sector has over 12% of staff off sick for more than 15 days a year – many on long term sick, and a proportion abusing the system. How much longer do we have to accept paying out for those who do not contribute or under perform?
Change the goals – improve business habits:
When younger our mothers would make us brush our teeth at least twice a day to avoid decay. The daily reminders were driven by the scary pictures of what would happen if we didn’t: the blackened teeth stumps or sets of false ones. Fairly soon we each learnt and remembered to brush our teeth by ourselves. Those who didn’t and never got to the dentist have ended up with problems. Could the same be true where employment legislation is concerned? If the legislation clearly produced a fair and reasonable outcome, surely it would no longer need to be enforced as all employers would be ‘brushing their teeth’ for themselves? If it is logical and sensible, then we would comply: where it is iniquitous people inevitably try to work around compliance.
There always will be unprincipled and dishonest employers and employees. There will be the heartless executives who demonstrate ruthless disregard for the law as there are the insidious, creeps who abuse the employee relationship and skive off work and then claim any and every form of discrimination, seeking compensation. However, these really are the exceptions, legislation should be there to develop good habits – not penalise all of us for the few bad apples.
Desired behaviours have to come from both employers and staff – and right now the legislation is making fools of both. If we can change the laws, it will dramatically reduce employment costs, improve staff performance, build trust – and so lead to longer and more sustainable business models in both public and private sectors. What will it take to make the UK grow up, be self-determining and stop being the laughing stock of the commercial world for compromising what were our ethics and morals? Who should be taking action now – or does this only happen through street protests?