{"id":7550,"date":"2016-02-01T16:16:36","date_gmt":"2016-02-01T16:16:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=7550"},"modified":"2016-02-02T16:10:24","modified_gmt":"2016-02-02T16:10:24","slug":"damning-indictment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=7550","title":{"rendered":"‘Damning indictment’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s productivity plan has been slammed by a committee of MPs as \u00e2\u20ac\u015bvague\u00e2\u20ac\u0165, and not worth being called a plan at all.<\/p>\n

 
\nThe business, innovations and skills (BIS) committee noted in a report published today<\/a> (February 1) that the \u00e2\u20ac\u015black of specific and measurable policies [in the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s productivity plan] means that there is a risk that the document is destined to collect dust on bookshelves across Whitehall.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bRather than being a clear and distinctive roadmap as to how Britain will close our productivity gap, [the plan] is a vague collection of existing policies,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 noted BIS Committee chairman Iain Wright.<\/p>\n

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Lagging behind<\/strong><\/em>
\nThe UK\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s productivity, which measures output per worker, has remained notoriously low compared to other major industrialised countries such as Germany and the United States.<\/p>\n

 
\nThe government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s initial productivity plan \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Fixing the Foundations<\/a> \u00e2\u20ac\u201c was published in July after chancellor George Osborne pledged to tackle the UK\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s poor productivity performance. The productivity gap prompted business secretary Sajid Javid to call boosting productivity \u00e2\u20ac\u015bthe greatest economic challenge of our age\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n

 
\nBut why, exactly, is the UK so far behind on productivity?<\/p>\n

 
\nExperts have pointed to businesses\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 lack of investment in equipment and the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s low public infrastructure spending as main drivers of the UK\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s stubbornly low productivity.<\/p>\n

 
\nUnite assistant general secretary Tony Burke added that a skills crisis driven by lack of quality apprenticeships, as well as a failure to integrate the workforce and their representative unions in company decision making, are also keeping productivity low.<\/p>\n

 
\nBurke called today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s BIS committee report a \u00e2\u20ac\u015bdamning indictment\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 of the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s track record on productivity.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAs the report rightly pointed out, the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so-called productivity plan is not a plan at all. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just more of the sloganeering without substance that we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve come to know from this government \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u0098march of the makers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 and the \u00e2\u20ac\u0098northern Powerhouse\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 come to mind.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Quality apprenticeships<\/strong><\/em>
\nThe BIS committee noted that there is a severe lack of clarity around the apprenticeship levy, which is scheduled to come into force in April of next year, and will fund 3m apprenticeships.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt appears that the government has not consulted with, or considered the impact that this policy will have on industry,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 the report noted. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThree million apprentices is a significant commitment to place on businesses and we are concerned that this is a decision that has been made with no consideration for what type of training businesses actually want to facilitate.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nBurke argued also that the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pledge to rapidly expand apprenticeships may come at the cost of quality training.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe government has said these apprenticeships will be at minimum 12 months long, but at least in manufacturing, this is nowhere near long enough,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he explained. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe at Unite have been calling for gold standard apprenticeships that are at least three years long.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nFigures from the Office of National Statistics<\/a> released in September of last year showed just how far the UK was lagging behind the world\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s major economies.<\/p>\n

 
\nOf the countries in the G7, which includes Canada, the UK, Japan, France Germany, Italy and the United States, only one country, Japan, fared worse than the UK in 2014. The UK lagged behind Germany, France and the United States in output per worker by between 32 and 33 percentage points.<\/p>\n

 
\nUnite last year investigated the productivity gap between the UK and other advanced economies, specifically Germany, the United States and France.<\/p>\n

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Stronger trade unions, better training<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n


\n<\/strong><\/em>
\nLack of investment was highlighted in Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s research as being a main roadblock to increasing productivity in the UK.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOne of the biggest problems facing the UK is that lending and investment still have not even come close to their pre-crisis rates and this has forced some companies, especially SMEs, to hire cheap labour instead of buying new machines that would make them more productive,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 the Unite report noted.<\/p>\n

 
\nA major difference between the UK and France which could explain France\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s higher productivity is the role that trade unions and workers play in company decision-making.<\/p>\n

 
\nThe Unite report explained that French law \u00e2\u20ac\u015bprovides for elected union delegates representing all employees, whether they are union members or not, in firms with over 50 staff on works councils and separate health and safety councils. These must be consulted regularly by employers on a wide range of different managerial decisions.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nGermany\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s higher productivity can in part be attributed to its highly skilled workforce, which has been achieved through its dual vocational education system.<\/p>\n

 
\nIn this system, trainees are apprenticed to a company and work 3 to 4 days a week alongside industry professionals and spend 1 to 2 days a week attending a state supported vocational school taking courses relevant to their chosen vocation.<\/p>\n

 
\nGermany, too, has tuition free universities, which puts the country at a competitive disadvantage to the UK, where in many cases students must take on significant debts in order to study.<\/p>\n

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Time for action<\/strong><\/em>
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe need to be looking at exactly why other nations are outperforming us on productivity, instead of offering up reports that are nothing more than press releases,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Burke added.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThere are specific steps the government can take to solve the productivity puzzle,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he explained. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe at Unite have called for greater investment in advanced manufacturing technologies, supporting a serious skills and education agenda that helps businesses upskill their employees, as well creating strong structures for union and management co-operation.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bNow is the time for action,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Burke went on to say. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt is our hope that the BIS committee has opened up the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s eyes to the enormous \u00e2\u20ac\u201c but eminently doable \u00e2\u20ac\u201c tasks in front of us to achieve a more productive and prosperous economy.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nFind out more about Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s recommendations to improve productivity here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s productivity plan has been slammed by a committee of MPs as \u00e2\u20ac\u015bvague\u00e2\u20ac\u0165, and not worth being called a plan at all.   The business, innovations and skills (BIS) committee noted in a report published today (February 1) that the \u00e2\u20ac\u015black of specific and measurable policies [in the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s productivity plan] means that there […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4641,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[260,55,326],"wps_subtitle":"MPs denounce gov't productivity plan","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7550"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7550"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7550\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7556,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7550\/revisions\/7556"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}