Contribution
My Lords, the debate on this group of amendments has been invigorating and useful. I thank all those noble Lords, in particular, the Minister, the noble Baroness, Lady Jones, who have contributed to it.
My noble friend Lord Wolfson of Aspley Guise commended the intention of the Bill to counter the ill effects of zero-hours contracts, which his company does not use. I honour his intent and indeed his extraordinary contributions to the nation’s employment and its economy in general. I note that he tended to agree with my proposal overall, in respect of the dysfunctionality of this clause. I would be happy if the wording of the clause, if it is incorporated into the Bill, incorporated his wording but removed the rest of the clause from the Bill.
The noble Lord, Lord Fox, who does not appear to be in his place, spoke to Amendment 4, which, in the case that Section 27BA is retained in the Bill, switches the origination of a flexible-hours discussion from employer to employee. Clearly, this is a more sound and flexible approach, although I of course cannot go along with his later statement that he meant there to be an obligation on the employer to provide what the employee demanded.
My noble friend Lady Lawlor spoke movingly on the many things this Government have already done to depress economic activity and said—better than I—how this clause would make things much worse. She added the crucial point that the ill that this clause purports to address is in fact a good, much preferred by the majority of those working flexible hours.
My noble friend Lady Verma spoke with the authority of one who has great experience as an employer. She implored the Government to get their nose out of what should be a more relaxed and less formal relationship between employers and employees. The Government should pay her heed. My noble friend Lady Coffey spoke forensically about the wreckage this clause would create in the hospitality industry and also, very worryingly, in the NHS. Over and again, we heard noble Lords speak about the need for flexibility; this clause creates the opposite.
My noble friend Lord Sharpe of Epsom pointed particularly to the appalling outcomes this clause will create on the numbers of youth unemployed. Earlier, my noble friend Lady Meyer mentioned French youth unemployment at 19.2%. Have the Government any clue how that occurred? They did not intend that to happen, obviously. They do not want one in five of their youth unemployed who are seeking work. It occurred from precisely the sort of legislation that the Government are proposing to introduce here. Do we really want our youth unemployment to be one in five of those wanting to be employed? That is what I mean by outcomes rather than this notional and very generic idea of fairness—because it is not fair, either.
The Minister confirmed that the reference period will be in the legislation. This is welcome news, but it would have been better were it in the draft legislation right now, so that we could debate it right now—the time that we are supposed to be debating it. The Minister showed an impressive ability to wade through the latest iteration of what is an extraordinarily complex proposed set of rules, but creating and explaining such rules misses the entire point. This Government believe that “We know best” and therefore that if we create this perfect machine, these wonderful processes, all will be well. They do not know best; the market knows best and the market should be left to itself to sort out most of these matters. I urge the Minister to heed the words of the noble Lord, Lord Wolfson, and the noble Baroness, Lady Verma, to provide clarity as soon as possible and to provide flexibility in the way that they have just urged her.
The Minister sought to provide clarity on agency workers. With respect, her words did not reflect reality. Let us take as one random example the interim management sector. These individuals take jobs to fill gaps that suddenly appear in a company, to fill the period before a permanent replacement can be found. The appointment of an interim manager may last a day or it may last a year, depending entirely on events that will only be happening in the future. To guarantee hours for these individuals is, quite frankly, entirely impossible. That is just one of many different sectors and different possible examples, as the noble Baronesses, Lady Neville-Rolfe and Lady Verma, made clear just now.
I remain convinced that the outcome of this clause, if passed into law, will be significantly fewer—not more—jobs. Having said which, there are of course other ways of improving this clause if it is not removed entirely. These are ways that my noble friends and the noble Lord, Lord Fox, have offered with their own amendments, the vast majority of which I have indicated that I agree with, not least after listening to the experienced voices of business from these Benches.
To conclude, the removal of flexibility from employers cannot possibly be a good thing. The more employment flexibility that is created in an economy, the more creative are the ways that entrepreneurial employers find to grow the economy, to create more jobs, to improve living standards and indeed to provide the Government with more tax revenues to meet the depressingly larger and larger commitments that this Government continue to take on. Having said all of which, I reserve the right to bring this amendment back on Report. In the meantime, I beg leave to withdraw it.