How employers should deal with lazy or unproductive workers has long been a cause of argument with their colleagues who work hard to earn the same money.
The problem is turfing them out results in paying redundancy or compensation if the case goes to an employment tribunal.
Now a ‘leaked’ report suggest bosses can sack slackers and pay fixed rate compensation as a fine for clearing what they might consider dead wood.
The trouble is that dead wood could well be you or one of your family unfairly dismissed simply because the employer can fire you – and factoring in the cost of dismissal might be a small price to pay for some firms.
The good news is workers sacked for discriminatory reasons will still have the option of an unemployment tribunal.
For the rest of the country’s 29 million employees, effectively the employer can pay a small fine for pushing them out of their job, no questions asked.
Redundancy payments are not quite the golden egg that many envy.
A worker under 41 is paid £400 for every year worked with an employer up to a maximum 20 years – a total of £8,000. Workers over 41 are slightly better off at £600 compensation for every year worked up to the same 20 year limit – adding up to £12,000.
Unfair dismissal payments are a lottery. The cap is £68,400, but the average payment is much less, depending on the reason. This is generally on top of any redundancy payment.
Under the leaked proposal, the right of unfair dismissal is swept away along with the £68,400 compensation payment.
So will this proposal become law?
It depends. What you can see is government in action. Employers have sat across dinner tables and chatted at their lodges and clubs with policymakers and politicians.
The result is an anecdotal report claiming scheming employees take advantage of charitable employers and ‘things would be much better if we could just pay them off, old chap’.
The facts are that no research is in the public domain suggesting lazy employees take their bosses for a financial ride.
The leak is putting the report out for consultation through the back door.
The principle of fair play would suggest that this report is a policy no-goer, but if workers do not make enough noise, it might just coast through unnoticed to the statute book.
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