REC’s Hadley blogs from the Labour Party Conference in Brighton
25 September 2013
The Recruitment & Employment Confederation’s director of policy and professional services Tom Hadley has been in Brighton at the Labour Party Conference.
Wed, 25 Sep 2013The Recruitment & Employment Confederation’s director of policy and professional services Tom Hadley has been in Brighton at the Labour Party Conference.
Here are some of the key messages that he highlights from the conference:
1. Pay and effective enforcement are high up on Labour's agenda – This has been a real feature both of a number of fringe events and main hall speeches. The argument is that raising pay levels would end up saving the taxpayer money through a reduction in tax credits and other in-work benefits. Discussions also focused on better enforcement of National Minimum Wage rules (we support this and will continue to highlight the need for effective enforcement of all regulations), 'responsible capitalism' and worker representation on remuneration committees.
2. Recruiters can play a role in helping to shine light on worst cases of worker exploitation – There are real concerns over 'forced labour' in some areas of the labour market. We support the direction of travel from government on this, particularly potential conditions around transparency of supply chains, which would see end-users compelled to account for how they have ensured that there is no human trafficking or forced labour in their supply chains. Our line is that compliant recruitment businesses have access to a wealth of information on workers that can be shared with enforcement bodies.
3. Plans are afoot for GLA expansion and ‘false self-employment’ crackdown – Labour have voted to accept the recommendations within their ‘Protecting Workers’ policy document, which includes the expansion of the GLA to the construction, care and hospitality sectors. The detail of how this expansion would work or would be resourced has not yet been produced. We will continue to push for effective enforcement of existing regulations rather than the development of more legislation in our sector. Labour officials also underlined plans to clamp down on false self-employment in the construction sector but confirmed that they would consult further with the construction industry to ensure sufficient levels of flexibility are retained.
4. New measures needed on skills, apprenticeships and youth unemployment – There is a real sense that we need to raise aspirations and calls for a fundamental overhaul of national curriculum, as well as better engagement of employers. Infrastructure investment is a key plank in Labour’s plans for 2015 manifesto and our view is this needs to be partnered with a credible skills strategy. The apprenticeship proposal (ie. mandatory apprenticeships for employers hiring non-EU workers) was met with widespread disapproval from business organisations.
5. The need for more business support was recognised – A key theme was the key role of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) within our economy. Around 65% of REC members are SMEs, which is why some of the support proposals could be of value. However, the proposal to fund this by not granting cuts in corporation tax to big businesses has been likened to “robbing Peter to pay Paul”.
As expected, there were plenty of references to the ‘casualisation of the workforce’ and some ill-informed comments about agency work and other flexible arrangements. However, our meetings with shadow ministers were on the whole quite positive and will lead to further discussions over the coming months.
At the same time, Ed Miliband’s latest ill-informed attack on agencies in his speech underlined the size of the task ahead as we seek to influence Labour’s manifesto commitments.
Here are some of the key messages that he highlights from the conference:
1. Pay and effective enforcement are high up on Labour's agenda – This has been a real feature both of a number of fringe events and main hall speeches. The argument is that raising pay levels would end up saving the taxpayer money through a reduction in tax credits and other in-work benefits. Discussions also focused on better enforcement of National Minimum Wage rules (we support this and will continue to highlight the need for effective enforcement of all regulations), 'responsible capitalism' and worker representation on remuneration committees.
2. Recruiters can play a role in helping to shine light on worst cases of worker exploitation – There are real concerns over 'forced labour' in some areas of the labour market. We support the direction of travel from government on this, particularly potential conditions around transparency of supply chains, which would see end-users compelled to account for how they have ensured that there is no human trafficking or forced labour in their supply chains. Our line is that compliant recruitment businesses have access to a wealth of information on workers that can be shared with enforcement bodies.
3. Plans are afoot for GLA expansion and ‘false self-employment’ crackdown – Labour have voted to accept the recommendations within their ‘Protecting Workers’ policy document, which includes the expansion of the GLA to the construction, care and hospitality sectors. The detail of how this expansion would work or would be resourced has not yet been produced. We will continue to push for effective enforcement of existing regulations rather than the development of more legislation in our sector. Labour officials also underlined plans to clamp down on false self-employment in the construction sector but confirmed that they would consult further with the construction industry to ensure sufficient levels of flexibility are retained.
4. New measures needed on skills, apprenticeships and youth unemployment – There is a real sense that we need to raise aspirations and calls for a fundamental overhaul of national curriculum, as well as better engagement of employers. Infrastructure investment is a key plank in Labour’s plans for 2015 manifesto and our view is this needs to be partnered with a credible skills strategy. The apprenticeship proposal (ie. mandatory apprenticeships for employers hiring non-EU workers) was met with widespread disapproval from business organisations.
5. The need for more business support was recognised – A key theme was the key role of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) within our economy. Around 65% of REC members are SMEs, which is why some of the support proposals could be of value. However, the proposal to fund this by not granting cuts in corporation tax to big businesses has been likened to “robbing Peter to pay Paul”.
As expected, there were plenty of references to the ‘casualisation of the workforce’ and some ill-informed comments about agency work and other flexible arrangements. However, our meetings with shadow ministers were on the whole quite positive and will lead to further discussions over the coming months.
At the same time, Ed Miliband’s latest ill-informed attack on agencies in his speech underlined the size of the task ahead as we seek to influence Labour’s manifesto commitments.
