Proposed changes in wages legislation

Abstract

The government published its long awaited Wages Bill on 31st January 1986. Amongst its more important aims it proposes to make fundamental changes to the wages council system the long term effect of which will result in the eventual abolition of wages councils. At this stage however the proposal has fallen short of total abolition of wages councils; it proposes to simplify the law relating to payment of wages and to repeal a significant amount of connected but archaic legislation; it aims at de‐regulating the field of wage payment by repealing some thirteen Acts, twenty Orders and parts of legislation; and finally the proposals aim at abolishing payment of redundancy rebates to all employers with ten or more employees. The raison d'etre of this proposed legislation is, in the words of Kenneth Clarke, when introducing the Bill “….to creat new job opportunities, particularly for young people …. remove out of date restrictions that restrain the ability of businesses to develop and to offer new jobs. The law on wages that we are replacing goes back to Victorian and Edwardian times and reflects historical social conditions. This Bill will make it easier to employ people under modern conditions and will remove the over‐regulation and rigidity of the present system.”

Citation

Carby‐Hall, J.R. (1986), "Proposed changes in wages legislation", Managerial Law, Vol. 28 No. 1, pp. i-7. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb022422