PM promises businesses tax cut but cools on workers on boards plan
Last week I stood in front of a room of HR professionals and gave my predictions of what the government’s employment law agenda (outside of Brexit) might look like over the next 4 years. Those predictions were based on comments recently made by Theresa May in the run up to her being appointed Prime Minister. Unfortunately, it now seems as though her plans for the future are a little different.Having said that, although Theresa May expressed concerns over corporate governance and despite the negative publicity regarding Sir Philip Green and Mike Ashley, were we honestly expecting to see workers having a say in the running of business like the systems operated in countries such as France, Germany and Scandinavia?Probably not. A step of this nature would have been radical for any UK government but especially a Conservative one and to be fair it is doubtful the unions would have been satisfied with whatever Theresa May had in mind at the time anyway. The same questions still need to be answered, namely what involvement will workers have? Will the changes be limited to employers of a certain size? Would it be a purely representative role or will workers be entitled to vote? (always unlikely in my view). For answers we will have to wait and see what the government has in mind in the coming weeks.In the meantime, during the summer Theresa May was also quoted raising concerns over executive pay and the “unhealthy gap” between the pay of workers and their bosses. In doing so she suggested plans aimed at creating more transparency in relation to bonus targets and pay disparity by publishing details presumably in a similar way to the gender pay gap reporting rules. As a precaution I will now have to amend my presentation on the subject later this week in case these plans are also subject to change!
