If they get back into Government have much wickedness planned. We won’t dwell on that right now, partly because if we get a Labour Government we won’t have to endure them, mostly because we want to look at one of call me Dave’s recent acts of viciousness. One aimed at keeping the likes of us in our place and bad bosses laughing all the way to bank.
In a move that there was no real demand for (not even from big business to any great extent, although they were certainly pleased) the Con Dems brought in fees for Employment Tribunals.
This isn’t about efficiency or streamlining, it’s about pricing people out of Justice.
It’s not exactly rocket science to work out that people who want to make a claim about (say) unpaid wages or unfair dismissal might just have a bit of bother finding the cash. But that isn’t the end of the unfairness. If people know that they won’t be able to afford to take a case to a tribunal , they may just decide to put up with whatever they are suffering in the workplace...making it seem acceptable. That’s not a deterrent to bad bosses – quite the reverse.
By enabling bad bosses and encouraging bosses to be bad, Employment Tribunal fees don’t just harm those affected, they are bad for all of us.
Labour are quite clear. Labour will scrap Employment Tribunal fees.
The SNP in an 56 page manifesto can’t find the space for the single sentence it would take to do the same. The SNP often talk the language of partnership when it comes to industrial relations... this is one of those indications of whom they see the senior partner being. Check their policy on Zero hours contracts for proof of that.
It’s all the more serious because the operation of the Employment Tribunal system will at some point be devolved. So there is a real chance that, unlike many things they have opinions about, the SNP will be in charge of this. It’s difficult to avoid the conclusion that their silence on this is deliberate.
So while we don’t know what the SNP are going to do about another Indyref we do know what they intend to do about Employment Tribunal Fees - nothing.
If we are going to see an end to the price on Justice we need to make sure Labour win. We can only do that by voting Labour.