Link to this page: http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/655/11044
From The Socialist newspaper, 26 January 2011
Fight the Con-Dem 'bosses' charter'
THE LATEST proposals for changes to employment legislation from the Con-Dems once again show their blatant class bias. These moves are supposedly about 'lifting red tape' and 'promoting job creation', but it looks more like 'promoting job destruction' and making it easier for bosses to throw workers out onto the dole queues!
Greg Maughan
The first part of what ministers are referring to as an 'Employers' Charter', proposes that the qualifying period before workers can lodge unfair dismissal cases be extended from one to two years and that a charge of up to £500 to lodge employment tribunal claims be introduced.
This will mean that bosses feel free to exploit and discriminate against low-paid workers in particular, safe in the knowledge that they won't be able to afford justice.
The Telegraph quoted Harry Clarke of Cobalt Telephone Technologies: "On the day they are sacked, employees are asked to leave the Basingstoke-based business immediately and are rarely given formal warnings."
Clarke goes on to explain how his company premises have "a fairly large drawbridge and don't get lunatics turning up at the offices in the first place."
The company conducts 'personality tests' as part of its recruitment procedure, and for 'lunatic' you can read anyone who has been involved with a trade union and has a campaigning background, or even just expects the 'courtesy' of a notice period!
The Unite union has rightly condemned these proposals as a 'Rogues' Charter' and as part of the fight to defend all jobs and services, the trade union movement must vigorously oppose these regressive attacks and demand rights for all workers from day one on the job.
- David Cameron has also announced that the government plans to change strike ballot laws, making strikes illegal if less than 50% of union members take part. This move is designed to stymie trade union opposition to spending cuts.
The CBI bosses' organisation is further insisting that a strike ballot should only be valid if over 40% of those entitled to vote do so, instead of the current simple majority of those who vote.
If the CBI's formula was applied to voting in general elections then the present government would be illegal!
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In The Socialist 26 January 2011:
Socialist Party youth and students
Where next for the student movement?
Education Maintenance Allowance days of action 18 and 19 January
No to sky-high youth unemployment!
Socialist Party news and analysis
Warning: Government health 'reforms' can seriously damage your health
Phone hacking and media spin - the murky world of Andy Coulson
Food price hikes fuelling unrest
Fight the Con-Dem 'bosses' charter'
RMT leader slams anti-union laws
Socialist Party workplace news
Hampshire: Battling to defend jobs
Second show of strength by Medirest workers
National Shop Stewards Network
NSSN anti-cuts campaign launched
Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) conference
International socialist news and analysis
Irish government collapses: United Left Alliance offers real alternative
Tunisia: Protesters demand real democracy and social change
50 years ago: Congo's independence leader assassinated
Socialist Party schools features
Tidemill school - victory for parents
Bankers' "Free school" excludes poorer pupils
Socialist Party review
Britain's Banks: Too Big to Save?
Comment
Three decades of 'reform' and 'flexibility'
Stop the mental health service cuts
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