The Government has announced that, despite rumours to the contrary, it is not intending to reconsider the recommendation of the Beechcroft report on employment law, as was published in 2012, that employers should be able to dismiss employees without cause, on a “no fault” basis.
The report suggested that small firms be able to dismiss people without any reason, in return for some settlement or compensation agreement. This proposal was not advanced when the report was initially published, but following the Conservative party being elected as a majority government in this month’s general election, stories began to circulate that the idea was under fresh consideration.
However, this has now been dismissed by new Business Secretary Sajid Javid.
Ruled Out Any Changes
Despite the calls for such dismissals to be introduced, the Business Secretary dismissed any reforms on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show. He said: "During the last Parliament we have saved businesses from about £10bn of costs collectively in regulation, and I think we can do at least that again."
"The other thing I want to do is help more small businesses with some of the challenges they face, not just red tape but especially the issue of late payments.
"Small businesses in our country are owed, I think, about £30bn - that's a record high in late payments, so we're going to set up a small business conciliation service to help deal with that."
He added: "I also want to take a look at regulators to see if... [they] can be made part of a system to help cut regulation on businesses."
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