From the Lib Dem conference in Glasgow: Recruiter reports
17 September 2013
Special to Recruiter from Glasgow
Young people entering the workplace will not tolerate a culture of ‘presenteeism’ and a 9-to-5 routine, employment minister Jo Swinson has said.
Tue, 17 Sep 2013 | By Mark SmulianSpecial to Recruiter from Glasgow
Young people entering the workplace will not tolerate a culture of ‘presenteeism’ and a 9-to-5 routine, employment minister Jo Swinson has said.
Speaking at a Recruitment & Employment Confederation (REC) fringe meeting last night at the Liberal Democrat conference in Glasgow, Swinson said this age group would be used to new technology and flexible working.
That was why she did not think a ban on zero-hours contracts was appropriate, as they could suit both employers and employees.
“There are cases of abuse and we must have safeguards against those, such as when someone has to sign an exclusive contract, but we looked at this, whether you could specify minimum hours, and could not find a way to do it,” she said.
The discussion followed an announcement from Lib Dem minister for business, skills and development Vince Cable that he had launched a consultation on how to tackle abuses in zero-hours contracts, especially where employers demand workers work for them exclusively yet do not offer guaranteed hours.
The meeting heard from Tom Hadley, the REC’s director of policy, that skills rather than the precise terms of contracts would be the main emerging issue in work. “It is no longer a matter of who is permanent and temporary, rather it is who is skilled or unskilled and who can progress their career,” he said.
“We not only have to get people into work but then help them to progress when they are there and I can’t see any careers guidance service at all and we need one.”
Nora Senior, president of the British Chambers of Commerce, expressed concern over the difficulties experienced by small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in delivering training, after speakers from the floor pointed out that these companies could rarely spare staff to go on training courses and feared that those they did train would be poached by rivals.
“One of the barriers for SMEs is that there is help available with sources of training funding but the process you have to go through to access it is so long and prohibitively costly that they lose the will to live,” Senior said.
Simon McVicker, director of policy and public affairs at the Professional Contractors Group (PCG), told the meeting that he expected self-employment to grow and for more women to enter the field as they appreciated the improved work-life balance potentially available.
McVicker said policy makers, in particular in the EU, had failed to keep up with this trend.
“They are 50 years behind the time still talking about social dialogue with trade unions, and in most European states they make it hard for people to work independently, but people will increasingly do that whether governments like it or not,” he said.
The meeting was co-sponsored by Demos Finance, the financial research offshoot of the Demos think-tank.
Young people entering the workplace will not tolerate a culture of ‘presenteeism’ and a 9-to-5 routine, employment minister Jo Swinson has said.
Speaking at a Recruitment & Employment Confederation (REC) fringe meeting last night at the Liberal Democrat conference in Glasgow, Swinson said this age group would be used to new technology and flexible working.
That was why she did not think a ban on zero-hours contracts was appropriate, as they could suit both employers and employees.
“There are cases of abuse and we must have safeguards against those, such as when someone has to sign an exclusive contract, but we looked at this, whether you could specify minimum hours, and could not find a way to do it,” she said.
The discussion followed an announcement from Lib Dem minister for business, skills and development Vince Cable that he had launched a consultation on how to tackle abuses in zero-hours contracts, especially where employers demand workers work for them exclusively yet do not offer guaranteed hours.
The meeting heard from Tom Hadley, the REC’s director of policy, that skills rather than the precise terms of contracts would be the main emerging issue in work. “It is no longer a matter of who is permanent and temporary, rather it is who is skilled or unskilled and who can progress their career,” he said.
“We not only have to get people into work but then help them to progress when they are there and I can’t see any careers guidance service at all and we need one.”
Nora Senior, president of the British Chambers of Commerce, expressed concern over the difficulties experienced by small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in delivering training, after speakers from the floor pointed out that these companies could rarely spare staff to go on training courses and feared that those they did train would be poached by rivals.
“One of the barriers for SMEs is that there is help available with sources of training funding but the process you have to go through to access it is so long and prohibitively costly that they lose the will to live,” Senior said.
Simon McVicker, director of policy and public affairs at the Professional Contractors Group (PCG), told the meeting that he expected self-employment to grow and for more women to enter the field as they appreciated the improved work-life balance potentially available.
McVicker said policy makers, in particular in the EU, had failed to keep up with this trend.
“They are 50 years behind the time still talking about social dialogue with trade unions, and in most European states they make it hard for people to work independently, but people will increasingly do that whether governments like it or not,” he said.
The meeting was co-sponsored by Demos Finance, the financial research offshoot of the Demos think-tank.
