Has anyone worked out the economics of making a worker
redundant? My guess would be that, for every £100 saved diorectly
by a company in wages, admin, floorspace, when they "shed" a
worker (lovely term, that, "shed", makes the workers sound like
some discarded exoskeleton of a growing insect)...
The govt loses another £60-£80 in, welfare payments, DSS admin,
lost salary tax, lost tax on the purchases not made by the
redundant worker, and multipliers on the purchase (tax) foregone
by the shops the worker would have shopped at.
The company then picks up say £20 on getting a cheap worker on
New deal/workfare off the dole.
A minor amount, say £10, then goes back to the govt in saved
welfare and corporate tax.
Thew govt and society lose further on social costs such as raised
crime, more ill health, poorer schoool performance due to a
declione in the urban environment, etc etc, maybe another £30
here....
I would like to know if anyone has worked out truer figures for the
above.....
But it would seem that there is a strong case for taxing
redundancies, esp as cash flows the other way; although we don't
have direct labour subsidies, co'ys do get substantial subsidies on
the promise of the jobs they will bring, and of course workfare is
another such subsidy.
For really joined up govt, the redundancy tax ciokuld be partly or
wholly waived if the co'y has trained the worker, perhaps gaining
them a recognised qualification such as a NVC.
No doubt the corporate world will squeal at this - it seems some
co'ys really do prefer an ill educated workforce that they can pay
peanuts to - they get monkeys but, so what, more complicated
tasks can be computerised. But this puts them against the true
interests of both govt ansd society, who do better if the UK is a
high trained, high skill, high salary country.
Yes, co'ys would not come to the UK for its cheap labour, but as
we say in the car industry, such jobs go as easy as they come.
So, Mr Blair, is the UK in the 1st or the 3rd world?
Hillary Shaw, P/G Geography, University of Leeds
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