Following the Liberal Democrats party conference this week, the REC have responded to some of the claims from both Vince Cable and Danny Alexander. The conference in Brighton has seen some key messages about the Lib Dem’s commitments to improving the economy.
Business Secretary Vince Cable spoke at the beginning of the week, and outlined the strength of UK business, stating that this will be the main driver for economic recovery. He said that to support them, the government are looking to scrap more unnecessary red tape and strengthen regulation where it is necessary.
He also continued to praise the flexible labour market and working practices that have seen over a million private sector jobs in the last two years. However, the REC responded to the Lib Dems conference, suggesting more needs to be done to support the UK’s flexible workers.
In response to Vince Cable, the REC’s Director of Policy Tom Hadley said; “The Business Secretary is right to recognise the role of the UK’s flexible labour market … however, more needs to be done to protect this vital flexibility and we need to see some tangible progress on the government’s ‘red-tape’ challenge.”
The red tape challenge was a point mentioned this week by Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander; something which Mr Hadley claimed conflicted with Vince Cable’s message. He said there was a “fundamental disconnect in some of the political rhetoric” saying that on one hand Mr Cable was highlighting the role of the UK’s flexible labour market, whereas on the other, Mr Alexander spoke of his commitment to plans which would essentially limit the use of contractors and interims.
Whilst this caused some concern to the REC, they still believed that this week’s conference gave a great platform for them to showcase the findings of their Flexible Work Commission, as well as debating how this would impact on government policy and for businesses and recruiters.
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