REC reaction to the Queen's Speech

Neil Carberry, Chief Executive of the REC, said in response to the Queen’s Speech:

On skills:

“Today’s Queen’s Speech was a chance to set out a plan for Britain in recovery. We were pleased to see skills feature so centrally – with unemployment likely to peak lower than expected, the challenge now is making sure people have the skills needed to get the new jobs that will be created. That means having a proper employer voice in the system – and addressing consistent business feedback that the Apprenticeship Levy isn’t working. It’s vital to the levelling up agenda that we make sure these opportunities are available to everyone, including those on temporary contracts. A lifetime skills guarantee should help people to access a wide variety of training that will help them get back into work or take the next step in their career. We look forward to seeing more detail in the Skills and Post-16 Education Bill next week.

On employment:
 
“We were surprised by the lack of a specific Employment Bill in the speech – but we hope the commitment on plans to support jobs and improve regulation will see key issues tackled in the near future. A Bill is long overdue. It was due to contain a number of measures to extend and protect workers’ rights, and create a Single Enforcement Body to tackle abuses in the labour market – and could also have provided further guidance on flexible working and the regulation of umbrella companies. We hope to hear more about these issues from government as they can’t just be side-lined as the labour market recovers. 
 
“It was good to hear that the government plans to work on reducing ethnic disparities in the economy – we hope this will include bringing forward plans to require ethnicity pay gap reporting as a way to drive better diversity and inclusion in the workplace.”

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