Speaking on publication of a new STUC report, ‘Challenging the Red Tape Myths’, Grahame Smith, STUC General Secretary said:
“The debate over ‘red-tape’ and ‘business burdens’ is getting seriously out of hand. The hysterical contributions of employer bodies and too many politicians are provoking policy responses, which increasingly focus on the setting of arbitrary targets for the reduction of red-tape. We hope this evidence based report encourages a higher quality of debate on this important issue.
“The setting of arbitrary targets is not only absurd, it is highly dangerous to the interests of workers, communities and the environment. Swinging deregulation is also detrimental to the interests of good employers who find themselves undercut by cowboys. It is time to promote the essential and positive role regulation plays in a modern knowledge economy.
“Rather than pandering to hyperbolic scaremongering over red-tape, politicians must start to challenge business to make the most of a decade of economic stability and a forty year high in business profitability to invest in people, plant and research.
“There is of course one effective alternative to prescriptive regulation: opt out via collective bargaining with recognised trade unions. We look forward to the employer representatives proposing this method instead of bizarre and ineffective percentage reductions”.
ENDS
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Stephen Boyd 0141 337 8100