How would you like to be paid to stay at home and do nothing? Well, that’s exactly what the Confederation of British Industry’s (CBI) ‘Alternative to Redundancy’ (AtR) scheme has suggested that employers should do. By putting workers into a low-paid limbo rather than making them redundant, the company is better able to respond to surges in demand. Times Online reports that the ATR scheme would give workers £130 a week, half of which would be covered by the employer and the other half by the Government.

Workers would stay on the scheme for six months and be ready to be re-hired at any time in this period. The CBI’s deputy director John Cridland sees this scheme as a way to help ‘business cope with sharp drops in demand’ yet also be prepared for recovery, while workers will be able to benefit from ‘improved financial support and a door that is kept open for six months’.

Opposition has been raised by unions, in particular Brendan Barber of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), who deem the proposals to be just another way for employers to short-circuit the current redundancy rules. With the AtR measures, employers would be able to fire workers with just four weeks notice rather than the 90-day consultation period, and any worker who is on the AtR scheme and accepts a job will lose all redundancy benefits effective immediately.

Barber argues that it is better to ‘keep people in work or training with their employer rather than sitting at home’; the TUC argues instead for wage subsidies that are now common in the rest of Europe. Cridland hit back, saying that subsidies are too costly for Britain’s finances. He argues that the AtR is not about letting business avoid their responsibilities, and points out ‘that if a scheme runs for six months and a redundancy is still made, then the business will actually end up paying more’.

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