O’Grady added:
“The margin of defeat - a big victory for union campaigning - suggests that ministers should quietly abandon this policy.”
The Government will now have to decide whether to overturn the defeat in the Commons.
EMPLOYMENT RIGHT V SHARES – HOUSE OF COMMONS VOTE IN EMPLOYEE SHAREHOLDERS
17 April 2013
After its previous defeat in the House of Lords, the House of Commons have voted to re- instate clause 27 of the Growth and Infrastructure Bill and allow the status of Employee Shareholder. Commenting after the vote was held in the Commons to re-instate the Chancellor's flagship shares for rights proposal, after its previous defeat in the Lords, TUC General Secretary Frances O'Grady: 'Employment rights should not be for sale. Employers do not want to buy them, and employees will not want to sell them. What is worse is that it's only real practical use is as a tax dodge.’
EMPLOYEE SHAREHOLDER STATUS – THE VOTING CONTINUES
24 April 2013
The House of Lords have voted for the second time to reject the proposed Employee Shareholder status set out in the Growth and Infrastructure Bill.
With thanks to Daniel Barnett’s Employment law bulletin . Under this scheme, which creates a third type of employment status, employers can award employees at least £2,000 in shares in exchange for the employee giving up a bundle of employment rights (including 'ordinary' unfair dismissal and the right to a statutory redundancy payment). The government is determined to pursue the scheme, however, and this morning published a list of concessions which it hopes will mean the Lords accepts the proposed legislation. The concessions include:- a provision that the employee cannot accept the offer within seven days of it being made (how that would work in practice is unclear, and an employer remains free to refuse to offer the job to a prospective employee who doesn't want to take up employee shareholder status) a written statement setting out the details of the shares being offered (including whether they are voting or non-voting shares, whether they carry a dividend, and whether they carry a right to a share in the company's assets if it is wound-up, whether pre-emption rights are excluded, and details of drag-along and tag-along rights). Most employees will not understand the implications of this information, and there is nothing to prevent employers issuing pages of gobbledigook about the shares which buries this information somewhere within. a written statement setting out the rights that the employee is giving up
The government had made some earlier concessions to the original proposals:-
CIPP Policy News Journal
16/04/2014, Page 265 of 519
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