It was with interest that I watched Theresa May this morning, answering some albeit not particularly stretching questions from Mr Marr.
She is maintaining that the status quo in respect of EU laws will remain until Parliament cancels or amends any unwanted legislation. This was summarised on numerous occasions as being in the interests of British Workers and Employers, which I guess for those of us who have implemented substantial change projects(uncertainty) this was welcome news.
However having just read the whole section in Workbook One on cyclical patterns within the economy I couldn't help but notice the distinct differences in approach Theresa and her government are adopting. Yes the policies are same,in theory however it felt altogether different. I couldn't help but notice how few members of the press were hovering outside and when asked she made it clear that direction was based on consultation and committee, rather than informal political and personal networks. Less celebrity and more substance and delivery against promises, with a hint of better cash management when pushed, irrespective if you agree or not with the policies.
During the day I reflected on some of the major issues I've experienced as an HR Professional, and wondered how they might be resolved in the new world. For me my thoughts focused quickly on 2004 when I was trying desperately to recruit and retain Factory Operatives in an under-invested Food Manufacturing facility in Portishead near Bristol. Direct labour is a blunt tool in this type of environment and without it delivery and cost management can difficult. The geographic area was developing into a desirable commuter belt location for Bristol commuters and it neither contained nor was encouraging the type of resource needed. After significant deliberations and lots of investigatory work to ensure living standards etc the services of a specialist agent were retained and the first group of 10 Polish employees arrived. Within a several months the mix of staff was forever changed, around a third White British and second third Somalian British and the remainder Polish. Productivity had shot through the roof, costs managed and resource flow was no longer an issue. There were of course issues with integration within the facility and the local community, however they were definitely worth the effort.
The employees and business benefited, as did I both in terms of salary and life experience. Now unless I'm mistaken in the new world it may prove harder to resource this type of labour from within the EU. During our initial session last week Les (our facilitator) mentioned that the more educated are likely to fair better as technology develops, this has also been reinforced by information read. This suggests to me that there is a supply of less educated employees within the marketplace. Whether it was where the factory was located or the period in time, I'm unsure however my experience has been that certain jobs are felt to be unsuitable for large sways of the British population. We weren't paying minimal wage, various shifts were available as were opportunities for overtime and advancement, we even offered transport - yet attracting UK workers was all but impossible.
Perhaps others have memories or comments about experiences that may have shaped the UK we live in today, and how they may have to approach them differently in 2016/17.If the new Government does deliver on it's promise to restrict EU labour movement and I encountered a similar scenario to that of 12 years ago I'm not sure what I would do, because public perception is such that the majority of the UK appears to feel that people migration in counter intuitive to our economy stability and growth. In order to address this issue it would seem we have to relive the pain of the past, or maybe we don't - thoughts????
Replies
Thanks Sarah & Sarah,
The unpopular areas of EU legislation do appear to be universal and without doubt the Agency Working Regulations seem to impact significantly on growth. Also having just left a public sector environment it will be particularly interesting to see how COSOP within TUPE unfolds, it's nearly impossible to stay in aligned work streams and as a consequence risk is escalated.
While I completely agree that legislation is probably needed to encourage individuals to accept certain roles, my concern surrounds when the stick is the only option left. When you have hard line VC businesses pushing for staff and the only option left is those who really don't want the jobs, it's a no win situation. I'm personally in a place where I do believe the receipt of benefits should be balanced - however the thought of ending up like some parts of the USA does not appeal to me. Thankfully I'm not a politician.
Hi Lynn
Great post and one with some great insight as to what lies ahead post Brexit.
I had one seminar with a learner whose business was agriculatural labour and she was saying how the majority of the workforce (some 6000 employees) were from the EU as they had limited success recruiting UK nationals for such back breaking work. Even if those who currently work in the UK from the EU are allowed to remain as so, what will this mean for future resource pipelines?
On a separate but similar note I noticed from the Conservative conference that Thersea May has said we will repeal the European Communities Act 1972 which gave EU law supremacy over national law. I was at an Brexit seminar last week where the speaker explored the ramifications for UK employment law, and the key takeaways were, the impact would depend on whether we went for a hard or soft Brexit, we know now this will manifest itself once we trigger Article 50 and Theresa May has said this we ill no later than March 2017.
The view was that most of the EU law is now enshirined in UK statute law, e.g. even though we repealed the ECA as the Equality Act is primary legislation that this would remain. The government could of course repeal the legislation but it was thought unlikely as this existed prior to the Equality Act in various separate forms of discrimination legislation. Key areas were it was considered could be repealed as unpopular with businesses were:
Ageny Workers Regulations
Collective Redundancy Consultation - reducing the consutlation timeperiods
Working Time Regulations, specifically where ECJ case law has shaped the approach in the UK so this would include accruing holidays whilst sick and rolling over entitlement into the next holiday year; right to retake holiday if sick whilst on holiday; calculation of a week's pay (ovetime and commission); on call time and the ban on rolled up holiday pay.
TUPE which is implemented from the Acquired Rights Directive we could see some changes to make it easier for employers to harmonise post TUPE.
Also possible exemptions for micro businesses, as in the past when the as was Disability Discriniatipon Act did not apply to businesses with 5 employees or less.
Anyway this is all guess work currently, thanks for starting a great topic.
What does everyone else think?
Sarah
My concerns are that the clock has started and now it's a race to understand the new environment post Spring 2019. How will it impact individuals, communities and companies, and do we have the appetite to be relentless in our search for proactive and appropriate strategies?
Your insight into the local workforce and jobs seen as undesirable to British workers echoes my experience, so how do we create desire and appropriate skills in our young workforce to mitigate this issue in the long term?