Deregulation is the path to growth

obiterdicta

But well over 2/3rds of employment law emanates from EU directives, TUPE for example. To have a bonfire of employment regulations would mean leaving Europe.

Rhoda Klapp

OK, blue sky stuff follows.

Everybody worksd for themselves. They are something like a limited company, by default. They contract with outfits who want work done. Terms of the contract to be decided only by the parties. Tax is paid by the worker, flat rate on income minus allowed expenses. Any shortfall to the exchequer goes onto VAT. HMRC cut by thousands. You want rights, or anything besides money from your 'employer'? Negotiate them. Or campaign for the state to provide all the maternity pay and leave and sick pay, your employer's liability is only what is in your contract.

Second suggestion, have a family company setup, where all members of a family (or other group determined by any way you like) can pool income, expenses and tax. No restriction on which activites are included, run your buy to let and your consultancy on the same books, together with Junior's wages from his temp job.

There may be a FEW details to work out. But what we have now is no good at all.

dorothy wilson

Another example of the effect of daft regulations:

Just before Christmas I attended a meeting of Women in Management. The speaker was an employment lawyer who spoke about all the benefits women could expect from an employer - and all those they ought to be able to expect.

Most of the women in the audience were in full agreement and went on to set out an even longer wish list.

However, in the "networking" session that followed the presentation I got into conversation with someone who had been sitting quietly at the back of the room. She turned out to be a highly qualified chemist who had progressed into a senior management position with international responsibilities. She was under notice of redundancy. Why? Because her firm had decided it was cheaper to move their local operation overseas. That firm is a major international pharmaceutical company whose activities we can ill afford to lose.

Unfortunately, there were only one or two people at the meeting who had the sense to see the connection between the "benefits" extolled by the speaker and the redundancy of a member of the audience.

Perry

Impractical, illogical, impossible in real life, but I maintain that, within limits, a one 'person' operation is by far the best in terms of service, completion time, reliability and courtesy.

We therefore look for and to such people in preference to any others.

It follows that the larger the organistion the more confused, long winded and expensive the response.

Witness HM Government if you can face it.

2trueblue

James, please try and refrain from referencing articles from the 'Times', I reuuse to pay to read on-line. Are you trying to sell for them?

The red tape that was gold plated by Liebore needs to be sorted and also the EU rules that drown us. Harman did a great job for the unions..... must be her connections.

Adam Lent

George Osborne wants us to become a vibrant, export-led economy. Germany is currently booming and has been one of the leading exporters in the world for years. Have they achieved this through erosion of employee rights, deregulation and tax cuts? No, they've done it by directing investment to innovative companies, ensuring a superb skills base and backing long-term R&D in a big way. As long as we think there are simple policy short-cuts to sustainable economic success, the UK will lag and probably decline.

Woodbine

I was lucky enough to forego large parts of my honeymoon because an employee thought he should be paid a bonus despite having resigned.

I had to spend over 100 hours and £2k defending ourselves, when all he had done was to make a call to a firm of ambulance chasers who submitted the claim.

He withdrew his action on the day of the tribunal, having wasted hundreds of productive hours for the state and my business on the whim.

Yam Yam

What was it someone once said about the road to hell being paved with good intentions.

yank

Deregulation is the path to growth

.

Which of course Dave and the wets ignore completely, and is the largest reason they will be going down soon. People will not accept economic stagnancy and falling personal income.

The prime example? Dave and the wets are avowed global warmingists. They have conspired with their lefty soulmates in strangling the economy and burdening the People with that foolishness. No single act of reckless regulation could more signally mark the wets' failure to understand the title of this blogpost. They have gone in the precise opposite direction from it.

This government is committed to government and regulation, and away from freedom and liberty.

And by the way, I haven't seen that committee's report written up here at the Spectator, the report that tore into the East Anglia whitewashes. What are you waitin' on?

Alexander Pelling

There is a very simple answer to this country's problems: make all employment contracts terminable on one month's notice either way, unless the parties have agreed otherwise in writing.

JohnPage

Yes, James, very fine. So where is the coalition's bonfire of regulations we were promised? Where is the freedom bill? The coalition are wimping out. It's about delivery, not soundbites.

Rhoda Klapp

Bonfire? You can't light a bonfire here. More than my job's worth to let you.

Publius

Adam Lent writes: "No, they've done it by directing investment to innovative companies"

Thing is, bureaucrats have not had much success at this. As with all planned economies, the ideas look fine on paper, but don't work in practice.

And the reason they don't work in practice is that insufficient attention is paid to the quality of those who make and implement the plans.

You highlight Germany. But you could say with far more justice that the Germans succeed *in spite of* whatever system they have to face.

Evidence of this is perhaps the relative success of East Germany when compared with its other communist neighbours. They did better not because of communist planning, but because they were Germans.

Chris lancashire

Camilla Cavendish's article is indeed excellent. As someone who has also suffered at the hands of TUPE whilst acquiring an insolvent company I can testify to the Mr B story.

Whilst the move on Industrial Tribunals is welcome it doesn't even begin to restore balance in the employer/employee relationship. And if the Coalition is so keen to free business why pass into law Harman's absurd equality bill and drop the abolition of the default retirement age on us with a few months notice.

I have learnt over many years not to depend on governments doing any less than loading more rules, more tax and more burden onto business.

Robert Eve

You couldn't make it up.

BenM

Yes-yes!

Let's join the madcap Tory race to the bottom!

Tally-ho!

"Deregulation"? Hmmm. Wasn't that why the economy copped it in the first place?

Chris Cook

@ Rhoda Klapp

I have news.

Companies have been obsolete since 6 April 2001.

With a bit of imagination, within a Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) framework you can do everything you mention, and a lot more.

The LLP is the Corporate That Dare Not Speak Its Name. Most professionals use the LLP form - which so simple and flexible that you don't even need a written agreement, since default provisions apply - but they're not so keen on advising their clients to use them.

That's probably because if you're paid by the hour - rather than by the outcome - you have a vested interest in complexand conflicted structures....

David Ossitt

No mention here of the parasites who make a practice of taking potential employers to the tribunals some winning claims on numerous occasions.

I will mention only three, first a young woman who runs a small ladies hairdresser catering to the young and trendy employing only herself and two staff wanted to expand and so advertised for a junior trainee.

Amongst the applicants was young woman who had completed a hairdressing course at college, when she arrived for interview she was wearing a full head scarf (only her face could be seen) the young owner pointed out that she and her staff were expected to have and show trendy fashionable hair, the applicant refused to comply.

The applicant won damages for not getting the job.

An accountant in her mid fifties made a habit of applying for jobs where the job advert stressed that there was an opening for a recently qualified inexperienced accountant on ten separate occasions this thief was compensated.

A trendy inner city bar that had a uniform dress code for both male and female staff made the mistake of employing a young Muslim woman, she claimed despite her religion to have no problem in selling alcohol, nor did she.

Where she got them was when the winter uniform was switched to the summer dress, she refused to wear a plain dress as she said it made her look tarty.

Guess what, she did not win her case.

Ruby Duck

Chris Cooke re Rhoda Klapp -

IR35 ?

TGF UKIP

Yank, you should understand that the politics and economics of the "global Warming" scam are a forbidden subject for the Spectator, far too embarrassing to Cameron, the Clique and their families, friends and donors who stand to make squillions out of it. Indeed, it is a subject the Speccie teenagers are forbidden by their editor to even refer to.

Major Plonquer 1

All those people who would like to see a bonfire of the regulations should keep in mind that you need a permit to light a bonfire.

Hysteria

yes - and a group of us could get together to negotiate these agreements - and we could maybe pool some of our income to pay into a mutual fund to help us if things go bad - lawyers and such like - we could even perhaps call ourselves "the Amalgamated Union of ..." - oh,......wait