Press Release

Don’t take us back to the 1970s, FSB warns

9 June 2008

The government has been urged by the UK Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) not to take the British labour market back to the 1970s by signing up to damaging employment legislation at the EU Employment ministers meeting in Luxembourg this Monday.

The Council of Ministers is set to reach agreement on the Agency Workers Directive and the Working Time Directive.  The UK is expected to gain EU approval of the ‘back-room’ deal reached on Agency Workers between representatives of the TUC and CBI in May.

To mark both the 1970s-esque ‘back-room deal’ between the TUC and CBI, and the return to 1970s Union-led employment legislation, the FSB has today dispatched a ‘care’ parcel of spam sandwiches, warm ale and Brut aftershave to Luxembourg, to fortify British Ministers and officials if the negotiations continue through the night.    

The Federation of Small Businesses conducted a snap poll of its members which showed that, of those businesses that rely on agency workers, over 96% would be less likely to employ them after the government’s deal goes through, and of all employers who have at some point employed agency workers, 98% would be less likely to recruit them in the future.  

FSB National Chairman, John Wright, said:

“As UK ministers travel to Luxembourg, they must decide whether they want to defend the flexible labour market that has contributed to economic growth over the past two decades, or take us back to when Britain was perceived as the sick man of Europe.

“This deal smacks of the 1970s when major decisions were made behind closed doors and Trade Unions dictated employment policy to the government. We cannot take Britain back to those bad old days.  

“On one hand, the government argues it wants to help small businesses, whilst on the other it introduces legislation that will seriously harm their growth.

“The government must not attempt to fool other European leaders into thinking this deal has business support in the UK. As far as Britain’s small and medium sized businesses are concerned, this agreement is not in our name.”

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