Construction union UCATT have slammed Government proposals to reduce workers rights, as a "sackers charter".

Reports indicate that the Government is intending to extend the period when employers can dismiss workers without being subject to a claim for unfair dismissal from one to two years. The Government is also understood to be considering introducing fees for workers taking claims to an employment tribunal and reducing the period when statutory sick pay is payable.

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Alan Ritchie , General Secretary of UCATT, said: "This amounts to a sackers charter, allowing unscrupulous employers to hire and fire workers at will. In an industry such as construction where work is already highly casualised and many workers don’t even have a contract of employment, these plans will simply increase levels of exploitation and will further reduce workplace justice."

Mr Ritchie, added: "If the Government was serious about stimulating the economy to create work, then they would not be making billions of pounds of cuts in construction projects across the public sector. These vitally needed projects might be publicly funded but they are undertaken by private companies."

(CD/GK)