Brexit

You would certainly see a reduction in sick days, i'm self employed and had to work through a full week of food poisoning a month or so ago. I'd love to have a job where i got paid if i was off sick but i'd still more than likely go to work.

 

Same here, 6 weeks off after hip surgery, typical of us self employed, aspirational and taking risks etc..backbone of the economy...
Saw a report once that claimed that 10% of our police force were off 'sick' at any one time, if that's typical across the workforce then it surely is being abused to some extent...

 

WINNER

 

Oh agree completely, the perk of quality sick pay is well known to be abused in the public sector. A lot of the problem with time off sick through the public sector though is the workloads and impossible scenarios placed upon the employees by cutbacks and budget reforms. The tories started implementing these cuts years ago and yet we pay more in taxes as individuals than we did when they started making the cuts. And they are still making cutbacks and the debt has gone up. Someones taking the piss.

 

I don’t know how true your 10% figure is, but I’m guessing the police force has a lot more than average because of the nature of the job. When injuring yourself chasing after folk, or seeing some unfortunate soul dead from an RTA, it’s going to have an affect, of course it is. Some will be taking the piss, but I bet it’s in the low single figures percentage wise.

 

The nature of the job has changed so much, in a previous life i knew cops who had been in over 20 years and never pulled their batons (or wooden stick as it was then) out. Now with the mobile phone era they are pretty much filmed every hour they are at work and nobody really likes the police any more.

 

Public Sector VS Private Sector on Sick Leave ( source Unique IQ )
New figures have revealed that workers in the public sector take more sick leave than private sector workers. There is a difference in the number of average sick days taken per year – 7.9 days in the public sector compared to 5.5 days in the private sector. Which is greater than 10%
The other thing to take in to consideration is that Public employees are paid generous sick pay while in the private sector some or even most employees are not paid anything and have to rely on SSP

 

I think this is spot on.

I have quite regular contact with the police, as I'm part of a local residents group. What they have to deal with is terrifying and the cuts in police numbers are having a massive impact. Whatever might be said about policing differently etc we are chronically short of police numbers.

A legacy of Teresa May's time as Home Secretary. The Tories used to be the party of law and order. Not any more.

 

I only get SSP. Any long term illness, and I’m fecked, basically. Doesn’t mean I begrudge anybody in the public sector getting sick pay. I’m glad they do, I’m not a bitter person.

 

Apologies for going off topic but there is a constructive debate to be had about the role of the police in our society in this ay and age. You could increase police numbers by double but unless they have a clear directive with the public about what their end product is i don't see the point.

 

Cut any service to the bone and you will inevitably get high stress-related sickness. Local Authority budgets have been halved in recent years due to government austerity agenda, but the demand for services keeps going up. Ditto NHS.
And teaching is a disaster area. So many unmeetable pressures. People are leaving in droves.
I play in a band with four teachers. Three of them have left the profession after decades of good service, following periods of severe stress and depression. These are not flaky types but solid teachers who had real commitment and solid careers until the demands became unworkable and damaging to their health.

 

We live in a free market capitalist economy, with brexit they want less regulation than we have now so with that comes some problems for the average worker. Capitalism exists solely to fill the pockets of shareholders and so the removal of regulations will lead more businesses to line the pockets of their shareholders. Its inevitable that companies will reduce their costs to improve profits and those low skilled workers will be the hardest hit. That means less holiday, less breaks, less paid leave and less job security.

 

You just make so much of what you post up. The minimum holidays to bw allowed by the EU is 20 days, we're very lucky that we actually get 28 days enentitlement. Less job security?? How?

If anything a low level of labour supply should see a pay boost for those on NMW.

 

Not everyone gets 28 days at all, most start at 20 with bank holidays. Very few companies give 28 days annual leave plus bank holidays.

To answer your question. Brexit has been sold to us as a way to free ourselves of all of the rules of the EU. What they mean is deregulation. Regulations are seen as a hindrance to the acquisition of capital. Lots of prominent brexiteers have said they want us to become a Singapore of the Atlantic. Well go and look at what the deregulated working conditions are like for the average worker there.

In a deregulated economy there is less job security because by definition there are less regulations. Regulations on workers rights protect the worker from unfair dismissal, unpaid overtime etc etc. Its not even an opinion its just a fact of economics.

Youre the one who wants brexit, face up to the realities because the utopia you think it will be simply doesnt exist. If you have a decent understanding of economics and have some way to prove me wrong then im all ears.

 

What I would really like to hear now, as we get closer to leaving the EU, is the detail as to how things will be done.

The UK has benefitted from billions of pounds from the ERDF, funding investment projects across the country. Now that is stopping, what exactly is going to be done to replace that? How is funding from the ECB going to be replaced?

I don't believe Brexit is a great opportunity. However, if it is then surely by now something detailed and concrete should be in place and understood? A complete lack of vision and leadership from those in charge of leading the Brexit process. I also don't hear anything practical from the arch Brexiteers who are publically visible.

Tinkering with tax rates does not drive capital investment in a country, which we badly need.

 

But you are too young to know what it is like to be outside of the EU, so how do you know that the regulation would become slack? You don't. There would be an uproar and I've seen absolutely nothing to suggest the governments intention to drop all the legislation you say we will lose, if it exists please point me in the right direction?

If you'd read my posts I'm not for or against Brexit, I wasn't too fussed either way but this is what we've voted for and I'm not scared of what a Britain not in the EU might be. I work in supply chain and import from all over the world and guess what, trade doesn't solely revolve around Europe

 

There have been numerous examples of prominent Tory Brexiteers such as Liam Fox, Priti Patel, Rees-Mogg, Boris Johnson and various others stating that they want to deregulate the Labour market once we leave the EU. This means doing away with as many employment protections as they can get away with in the interests of 'flexibility' - ie allowing employers to hire and fire at will.

Of course trade isn't just about Europe. But Europe is by far our biggest market for imports and exports. And the trade we currently do with the rest of the world takes place via highly advantageous trade deals negotiated for us by the EU. It's pure fantasy to believe that we can get such good trade terms negotiating on our own without the collective economic muscle of the EU behind us. Countries that we saw as economically inferior before we joined the EU are now major world players with more muscle than us. Don't forget, the reason we joined the EU in the first place was because our economy was doing so badly in isolation. Nothing about current circumstances makes us better equipped to cope on our own now.

It will take many years to renegotiate all the trade deals we'll lose and in the meantime we'll be stuck on tariff-heavy WTO terms which no one else uses by choice. Whichever way you look at it, Brexit is a recipe for economic disaster.

 

If we can deregulate bits that aren't needed then what is the issue with that? You're assuming that these regulations will effect the most critical bit of regulation and I don't think they will. They aren't exactly favourable now in terms of hiring and firing now are they? You can't start an unfair dismissal case with ACAS until you've had 2 years employment.

We're the third biggest EU contributor, take that away and the EU will probably be very worried that countries outside the EU will want to renegotiate their terms. I think you're underestimating our spend a little and the effect the EU missing out on that as part of the bloc - it's huge.

 

All workers have, from the first day of employment, the right to 5.6 weeks' paid holiday per year. You can work out how many days off you should get by multiplying the number of days you work each week by 5.6. Employers are allowed to include the eight UK bank holidays within your statutory holiday entitlement.

 

ERDF is just our own money given back with strings on how we spend it, We do not have to replace it from the EU the money is our own
Capital investment is largely driven by tax rates, Those countries that have a lower corporation tax attract more investment, Most companies that are in the Republic of Ireland are there for the lowest corporation tax in Europe at 11%, If they raised it then they would struggle to attract any investment at all,