'Boy David' commissioned a report from Adrian Beecroft. Mr Beecroft comes from the splendid 'profession' of venture capitalism. He is Chairman of Dawn Capital on whose website there is a potted biography of him. It reads:
Mr Beecroft brings a wealth of investment expertise to Dawn Capital born from a career spanning more than 25 years as a global leader in venture capital and private equity investment.
Adrian Beecroft has a degree in physics from Queen's College, Oxford. Following graduation in 1968, he worked for ICL in the computer industry for five years. In 1974 he went as a Harkness Fellow to the Harvard Business School, graduating in 1976. He then joined the Boston Consulting Group in London. He became a Vice President of BCG Worldwide in 1982.
Mr Beecroft joined Apax in 1984 when it had £10m under management. He helped indentify and evaluate opportunities, and negotiate and close investments in promising early-stage, high tech businesses.
So, he is such an obvious choice to investigate employment law and unproductive employees! And - not to disappoint - Mr Beecroft came up with some sympathetic and empathetic findings - I don't think!
Today's Daily Telegraph has leaked the findings of the report. Under the title : Give firms freedom to sack unproductive workers, leaked Downing Street report advises
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/jobs/8849420/Give-firms-freedom-to-sack-unproductive-workers-leaked-Downing-Street-report-advises.html
The article is by Christopher Hope and Robert Winnett. They write that the report states:
British workers should be banned from claiming unfair dismissal so that firms and public sector bodies can find more capable replacements.
Under current regulations, workers are allowed to “coast along” and employers are left fearful of expanding because new staff may prove “unknown quantities” who are impossible to sack.
In Hope and Winnett's online article, there is a sample from the actual draft report. In one section of the Executive Summary, there are the following words:
It is important to note that making it easier to remove under performing employees will not raise the overall level of unemployment. Employees for whom there is not a job are made redundant.
... The downside of the proposal is that some people would be dismissed simply because their employer did not like them. While this is sad I believe it is a price worth paying for all the benefits that would result from the change.
Hope and Winnett state:
The confidential report has been circulated across Whitehall this week and its findings are understood to have been discussed with business leaders, who are said to support the key recommendation.
Downing Street was not planning to release the analysis but is now expected to publish the report later this year, partly to counter inaccurate reports that suggested the report advocated cutting maternity rights.
I'll just bet that 'Downing Street' wasn't planning to release the analysis just yet! After the trouncing that 'Boy David' Cameron received at the hands of his own backbenchers, earlier this week, he'd have been out of his mind! They consider him rather on the 'unproductive' side, don't they? So, these same backbenchers will relish the possible opportunities the Beecroft Report may afford them. After all, the Tories are pretty ruthless when it comes to getting rid of 'unproductive' leaders! Just ask William Hague!
I can think of plenty working in No 11 who don't think that our Georgy Osborne is all that productive either! After all - the UK economy is flat-lining, after all the hype uttered by the oh-so-confident Georgy! Being Chancellor is a dicey thing. More than one Chancellor has scampered out of No 11 with his tail between his legs!
It would indeed be, to use Mr Beecroft's word, 'sad' for the two boys, Cameron and Osborne, to lose their jobs. But hey! Their dismissal would make a positive contribution to the good of the economy, surely? Since Cameron and Osborne obviously think so highly of the skills of Beecroft, the venture capitalist, they will understand that their own sacrifice is as nothing to that of the greater good!
If you believe that you'll believe anything! Cameron and Osborne will have to be dragged kicking and screaming from their respective residences - before either one gives up their job!
The strange thing is that it's always other people's job losses that are just a 'teeny bit' sad! When the job loss comes close to home - then it's a 'tragedy'!
Meanwhile - so as to be 'productive' myself, I'm off on a rat hunt! I don't want to be out on the streets the next time a television crew sees rats scampering across the doorstep of No 10!
'Bye'
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