Many will know that the Tory party when in opposition had meetings with President George Bush and the Republican Party during which they promised to streamline UK’s Labour Laws and business practices in line with those of America.
Everything from the slashing of health and safety legislation to the continueing cull of our country's social security provision to the privatisation of the NHS and other social care services; is in line with those promises to effectively make the UK a natural environment for the expansion of profits for US businesses. The TTIP is essential to this aim, and if passed; will be the final nail in the coffin of democracy and moral and physical responsibility towards employees and the people of this country.
Now, the Tories want to take us back to the 1700s when employers had no responsibility at all for their employees and every penny spent on them was seen as an unnecessary compromise of their profit margin.
Social Security is being slashed with the aim that it will eventually be withdrawn whilst currently working people are made to take any job at the lowest pay levels possible and with no job security or health and safety protection.
The latest attempt to remove sickness benefit and sick pay from both the government’s and the employer’s responsibility to provide to employees, is underway.
Announced by The guardian newspaper last Monday 13th July with the headline:
“David Cameron open to idea of workers saving up to fund own sick pay “, the full article reports on the evil of Cameron’s and Ian Duncan Smith’s latest scheme to reduce further any responsibility of employers to support their employees when they are sick and unable to work.
Not satisfied with driving workers to ill-health by their work under the threat by HR companies of being sacked even in the case of people suffering from cancer; the idea now is to force workers to fund their own sick pay by demanding they create savings accounts that they can use to fund their own periods of sickness. Just as they do in the USA!
The article written by Guardian political correspondent Rowena Mason quotes IDS from an interview he gave the Sunday Telegraph in which he said:
“We need to support the kind of products that allow people through their lives to dip in and out when they need the money for sickness or care or unemployment.
We need to encourage people to save from day one but they need to know that they can get some of the money out when their circumstances change. This is not government policy but I am very keen to look at it, as a long-term way forward for the 21st century.”
The Guardian news article continues:
Duncan Smith appeared to be suggesting a move to a kind of unemployment insurance scheme as seen in the US or products known as “fortune accounts”, which are used in Singapore.
Asked about the idea of workers saving up for their sickness and unemployment benefits, Cameron’s official spokeswoman confirmed he was prepared to consider such a model.
“I think the PM shares the work and pensions secretary’s view that we should be doing more to encourage people to take personal responsibility for how they manage their affairs,” she said.
“This isn't government policy, it’s an idea that’s out there. It’s an idea that should be looked at. That’s where it’s at, at the moment.”
Sources close to Duncan Smith said it was early days for the proposal and no concrete work had been done on it by the Department for Work and Pensions but it was something the secretary of state would like to see explored.
The proposal of fortune accounts for the UK was examined in depth in a paper by the free market libertarian Adam Smith Institute thinktank in 1995, which looked at how people could go to a single private provider for an account that gave them long-term care insurance, disability cover, health insurance, savings fund management and unemployment insurance.
This paper suggested:
“Many other things that we often regard as ‘welfare’ today are also insurable and will be part of the fortune account package. Cover against incapacity to work, long-term care services, and disability, will all be in the package.
For those who are never able to work through disability or other problems, the state will step in. As a welfare function, the government will simply pay that person’s fortune account provider to ensure that the right level of cash benefits or care services are provided.
For those in low-paid work who are unable to make adequate payments into their fortune account, the state will step in. It will simply top up the contributions of those people as a welfare obligation.”
According to the news item, Labour fear that it could lead to the privatisation of the welfare system and potentially elements of the health system by introducing a personal insurance element.
It remains to be seen as to the response of the Labour leadership and that of the TUC to what will be an act of destroying the moral and cultural belief that both Government and employers have a responsibility for the health and welfare of their employees as well as for paying them a true living wage.
Source: Sunday Telegraph / The Guardian
