industry and employment

8/6/2019 Industry and Employment

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Industry and EmploymentIndustry

Regional development is a key priority for Liberals and we would encourage further grantsand tax incentives for businesses to settle outside of London and the Home Counties.Improvements to the nations infrastructure and transportation systems will help to easethe log-jam around London and further encourage development in other areas.

Liberals recognise that some industries, such as Cornish tin mining, make a distinctive anddisproportionate contribution to regional economies. Public and private investment in these

industries needs to continue.

Liberals have identified the following as keys to national prosperity:

1. A well-educated and well-trained workforce, adaptable to changing practices, with astake in the enterprise they work for and with job satisfaction. Liberal policies toimprove the education services and for District Training Boards for the training ofyoung people and the retraining of adults, together with Liberal ideas for profitsharing and works councils would help to achieve this aim. Tax rebates would beoffered to companies to defray in-house apprenticeship and training costs. Liberalsrecognise that any industrial policy must be formulated with priority being given toimprove the status of teachers, engineers and scientists within our community;

2. The most up-to-date machinery and industrial plant available. Computers androbots are taking over a lot of the jobs that workers used to do. This hasadvantages as many of the jobs being automated were either tedious, unpleasantor demeaning. What does matter is that the wealth created is distributed fairly. Thisis why a sharing of profits and decision making is crucial, together with a moreflexible approach to retirement, hours of work and job sharing. To ensure priority isgiven to new investment, a Cabinet Committee for Industrial Policy would becreated to oversee an industrial credit scheme offering cheap, long-term financeand a national innovation policy for research and development. Liberals have also

long campaigned in favour of workers' co-operatives and feel more encouragementought to be given to their creation by making available low interest capital funds;3. The maintenance of our infrastructure. As part of a programme of industrial

recovery, Liberals call for programmes to tackle the backlog of maintenance of ourwaterways, road, motorway and railway networks;

4. A stable economy. Industrialists cannot plan for the future when high interest ratesprohibit investment in new plant and technologies, or when wildly fluctuatingexchange rates affect prices of imported raw materials and the ability to compete inthe international market place;

5. Positive help for small businesses. Liberals have long recognised the importance ofsmall firms which employ over 25% of the workforce. Facilities already on offer must

be extended so as to allow them to accumulate profits for ploughing back into the


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business, to give them access to management advice, and to relieve them of some

of the bookwork and red tape. We wish to strengthen the Chambers of Commerceand Trade to enable them to perform a role similar to that played by the CBI onbehalf of large firms. A senior minister of Cabinet rank should be appointed tooversee government assistance for small firms.

Liberals believe that the European Unions rights to take action to prevent the misuse ofeconomic power to stifle competition through undesirable take-overs needs to bestrengthened.

The Aerospace industry

Liberals recognise the importance to British industry of the growing market in spacerelated technologies. We believe that investment and support for research anddevelopment initiatives are essential to ensure that UK companies are in a position tobenefit from future developments. To this end, Liberals support continued UK investment inEuropean Space Agency (ESA) projects, increased government support for launcherdevelopment and manned space projects and a commitment to the International SpaceStation.

Liberals note the increase in air traffic world-wide, in both numbers of passengers carriedand in freight tonnage, and are concerned about atmospheric pollution being generated by

the engines of heavier-than-air craft. We believe that new technology and materials thatwere not available to pre-war engineers now present an opportunity to develop a newgeneration of air ships which rely on helium gas for lift, rather than the thrust of aircraftengines and therefore have the potential to provide environmentally friendly air craft ideallysuited for the transfer of heavy freight and passengers door-to-door, for ferryingemergency supplies to disaster areas and for patrol duties. We feel that that theGovernment should be doing more in liaison with the aircraft industry, the Military andairline passenger and freight operators with a view to promoting airship construction anddevelopment.

State and Private Ownership

We deplore the way in which the debate about state versus private ownership hasdominated political thinking on the subject of the UK economy for over 50 years. Liberalsjudge each case on its merits and without preconceived ideas. We believe that certainindustries cannot easily be made to serve the wider interests of society if they are run forprofit only, especially if the nature of the service creates a natural monopoly. We opposedthe privatisation of the utilities, railways and coal industries and are opposed to any plansto privatise the Royal Mail.

Liberals believe that the current structure of the water industry is not compatible with thebest interests of society and would seek to return the industry to public ownership.However, we do not believe that the re-nationalisation of successful businesses such as


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British Telecom is in the best interests of consumers or the shareholders.

Liberals would like to see experiments with new ideas of ownership and control including:

1. Government help for employee co-operatives and profit sharing schemes in theform of tax incentives, soft loans and grants;

2. legislation for employee involvement in decisions affecting the business they workfor in fundamental ways, such as mergers and take-overs;

3. more opportunity for employee and community involvement in the running of stateowned enterprises;

4. legislation to ensure that those with personal pension funds are informed as towhere their funds are ultimately invested;

5. a relaxation of the unduly restrictive rules on local authority Direct ServiceOrganisations to enable them to win work outside their authority provided they doso at no cost to the taxpayer (that is to say that they can profit by the work won);

6. allowing state owned enterprises to raise private capital;7. companies with over 50 employees to have supervisory boards elected by

employees and shareholders on the basis of an electoral college with 50% of voteseach;

8. enhanced powers for the Monopolies and Mergers Commission to investigate caseswithout needing a referral from the Secretary of State.

Full Employment

The Liberal Party believes that the quest for full employment cannot be abandoned. It is aparadox of our economic system that while there is a shortage of jobs there is no shortageof work to be done. We do not believe that the solution lies in the creation of a low wagedeconomy nor in workfare schemes which force people to work for rates of pay barelyabove the level of benefits.

However, we do believe that there are options available to the Government which wouldreduce unemployment significantly. Tackling unemployment must be restored as the toppriority of economic management. Investment in training, more flexible working patterns

and schemes to bring the long term unemployed back into the mainstream of economicactivity are all urgently needed.

The Liberal Party proposes:

1. the reintroduction of recognised trade apprenticeships, managed throughindependent district training boards;

2. the enforcement of a wider use of work share schemes and a more flexibleapproach to retirement and working hours;

3. financial incentives for companies to introduce child care facilities;4. the introduction of properly funded and planned community employment

programmes, whereby the long term unemployed are offered the chance to return


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to work by doing a real job of benefit to the community in return for a realistic wage.

In all such schemes, the quality of the work and training should be regarded asmore important than fast recruitment;

5. a change to the Jobseekers Allowance and Social Security rules so that earningsfrom part-time work do not lead to a disproportionate loss of benefit and that onlythe interest from savings is taken into account when calculating benefit, with animmediate increase in the diregard rule limit to 50, therefore allowing theunemployed to take on part-time and casual work without risking becomingcriminals, thus giving an escape route from unemployment.

The Liberal Party also proposes that, in the event of an unemployed person creating orfinding a job not previously existing they should be entitled to either a grant of 6 monthsbenefit or the continuation of that benefit for six months.

While not supporting deliberate and considered fraud of the benefit system, we believethat the majority of those who find themselves accused of fraud do so not because of anyserious intention, but due to the failures and inadequacies of the system.

Trade Unions and Employee Rights

The Trades Union movement has a key role in the development of workplace democracy.Worker representatives, shop stewards and trades union officials must be fully trained to

adapt industrial democracy to their workplace. Liberals call for the introduction of aWorkers Charter, clearly defining and safeguarding workers' and trades union rights.Such a charter would include the right of every worker to join or not to join a union, anddemocratic procedures for the conduct of ballots.

Liberals believe that, whilst employers have a right to protect genuine commercialinterests, employees have a right to speak publicly on issues of public interest relating totheir employers business. Liberals therefore call for the outlawing of comprehensivegagging clauses in contracts of employment or in terms of conditions of work.

To enable individuals to find opportunities for personal development, Liberals believe that

people of all ages and in all occupations should be encouraged to take sabbatical periodsat various stages of their working lives.

The Minimum Wage

The Liberal Party supports the introduction of a minimum wage, the level being based onreports by the Low Pay Unit. This would be combined with a countervailing reduction inemployers NI contributions to cancel the net economic effect on employers. This willsimplify the tax and benefit system by removing the majority of wage earners frombenefits, thus rendering unnecessary the vast transfer payments involved in the currentsystem.


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Consumer Protection

Liberals believe that membership of a Trade Association should carry with it a guarantee ofminimum standards and that as a condition of membership, traders should undergoregular retraining to ensure a knowledge of changes in working practices, health andsafety regulations and technology.

We further call for all businesses or persons employed in trades to be registered with theirprincipal local authority on a public register that states their qualifications in that trade.

Foreign Trade

Liberals have a historical commitment to free trade. Tariff barriers and protection oftendefend inefficient and declining industries to the detriment of the consumer. We areunhappy with several aspects of the latest GATT (General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs)deal which will work to the advantage of the rich nations of Western Europe, NorthAmerica and Japan at the expense of the poorer countries of the world.

We are concerned at the growth of global companies wielding huge economic power andoutside the effective control of any government.

Liberal Party proposals include:

1. a real willingness on the part of the UK government to work towards terms of tradewhich are in the best long term interests of the whole world;

2. a UN agency to help regulate the activities of global companies.

Weights and Measures

Liberals are appalled by the treatment of traders and others by the authorities in aseemingly mindless and bureaucratic quest to eliminate imperial weights and measuresand to force the adoption of metric measures in areas of life and trade where it is neither incommon use nor necessary. We see no reason why imperial and metric measures shouldnot continue to operate in parallel as they have for over a century, leaving science,industry, the markets, trade and the people to decide which system shall be used andunder what circumstances. We would legislate to allow the unfettered use of both metricand imperial measures in the UK.

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