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Industry calls for National Skills Task Force as redundancies loom
Latest News Fri, May 29, 2020 1:20 PM
Fri, May 29, 2020 1:20 PM
Britain’s manufacturers are calling for the establishment of a National Skills Task Force as companies are bracing themselves to have to make substantial redundancies as the rate of decline in orders accelerates and pessimism about a return to normal trading within the next year has grown according to a new survey.
In response, Make UK is calling for the establishment of a Task Force which would have the objective of retaining key skills within industry by re-deploying employees who have lost their jobs to other companies and enabling them to be re-trained. A smaller such scheme was set up after the Financial Crisis but Make UK believes there is now a case to establish a much bigger scale project on a national basis.
The survey also comes ahead of an expected announcement by the Chancellor of the Exchequer on plans to gradually unwind the Job Retention Scheme and a requirement for employers to make an increased contribution to the salaries of furloughed staff. In response, Make UK is urging the Chancellor to provide employers with as much clarity and certainty as possible to enable them to plan any restructuring, together with increased flexibility in the scheme to allow for part time working two days a week.