CBI demands introduction of a job suspension scheme
The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has today stepped up its campaign for government assistance in the employment market. Introducing a potentially revolutionary idea to the UK employment market, the CBI wants an alternative to redundancy scheme introduced which would see companies are allowed to suspend employee's contracts for up to 6 months.
During this period, employees would be paid twice the rate of the jobseekers allowance, with 50% covered by the company and 50% covered by the government, thereby reducing business costs and hopefully retaining employment positions in the longer term. There is some debate as to whether employees who "joined" this particular scheme would lose any of their redundancy rights or other benefits, with the unions not convinced and the CBI adamant that no benefits would be lost.
When you consider that UK unemployment has now topped 2 million and is heading quickly towards 3 million the potential for a six-month "lay off" and then return to work as normal might be beneficial to some areas of the UK economy. However, despite the fact the CBI claims that if redundancy occurred after the six month period, employees would still receive their normal rate of redundancy pay there is debate as to whether some companies would be in a position to cover such payments.
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