An "industrial policy", with an accompanying
"reform of corporate governance and business behaviour", could well be on the
cards from this Tory government, but its effectiveness has to be open to serious
doubt (Enough snappy titles.Let`s have a consistent strategy,10/10/16). Can
anyone imagine May`s party supporting the introduction of co-determination which
would actually make a difference. The requirement of a workers` representative
on company boards might be the sort of token gesture, or "window-dressing", that
Tory backbenchers might promote, but would they approve a measure insisting on a
third of board members being made up of elected employees` represenatives,
a sufficiently high number to have actual influence on pay policy? May`s naming
and shaming companies failing to pay the minimum wage was easy, but doing
something to remedy the outrageous statistic that only three employers have been
prosecuted in the last two and a half years, for breaking this law, clearly goes
against the Tory grain (Only three out of 700 firms prosecuted for paying below
minimum wage,28/09/16).
The idea of "rewarding companies", along the
lines of FDR`s "Blue Eagles" in 1930s America, is not without merit, especially
if they pay their proper share of taxes, and pay the actual rather than the
"national" living wage, but is insufficient. The question of zero-hours
contracts needs dealing with, as does the exploitation of tenants by private
landlords, both topics which received inadequate attention last week in
Birmingham., but both, in their way, connected to an industrial
strategy.
Policies are all very well, but until they are
backed by action, they remain very firmly in the folder marked "Tory
rhetoric"!
If, as Philip Inman tells us, the cabinet "is split on Theresa May`s plan
to put workers on boards", imagine the divisions in Tory ranks if the idea
wasn`t mere "window-dressing" (Governance test,12/10/16). Presumably many Tory
MPs object to co-determination on principle; workers should have no say in how
their employers run their companies. If workers on boards were to have any
effect, for example, on the pay gap between average worker and CEO, the TUC
reckons a third of companies` boards should be made up of workers`
representatives.
Inman says May has "to go all-in or fold"; sensible money has to be on
the Disraelian pragmatic approach. The reform would insist on one workers`
representative on the board of every large company, whilst being "permissive",
in that companies could allow more if they so desired
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