Member

Lords amendment 23 and amendments 106 to 120 have a core purpose of stopping this country slipping into the rates of youth unemployment seen in other European countries, where getting a first chance feels more like a lottery than a smooth passage into the workforce. Labour Members often like to cast themselves as the party of social mobility, but the reality is that if they remove probation periods—the chance for an employer to take a chance on somebody—they will kill social mobility. The debates in the other place highlighted the impact of not having a qualifying period not just on businesses, but the police and GPs. No proposal has been accepted by the Government that reconciles the promise to introduce a day one right to claim unfair dismissal with a commitment to a light-touch process for probation. At this stage, the only way to avoid undermining the Government’s 80% employment target is to accept the Lords amendment that reduces that period.