THE Government is clearly under pressure. With unemployment at a generational high and showing little signs of changing any time soon, more and more economists and commentators are urging the Government to recognise the current plan isn’t working and to change its strategy.

Osborne and Cameron seem disinclined to do this; instead they choose to add to the long list of scapegoats for the state we’re in.

The latest candidates for taking responsibility for the Government’s failure to secure growth are the old enemies of the Tory right; Europe and working people. The Prime Minister and his Chancellor have both tested the patience of European partners in suggesting that the Eurozone countries ought to be doing much more to tackle the sovereign debt crisis.

At the same time, they have insulated the UK from any financial contribution or further risk and chosen to forget that at the height of the recession it was the European Central Bank that proved such a valuable ally to this country.

Meanwhile, Tory Party donor Adrian Beercroft suggests that it is the inability of businesses to sack under-performing workers that is holding Britain back – what total baloney.

Unfair dismissal protections have been around for 40 years, introduced to prevent precisely this arbitrary approach to sacking workers advocated by Beercroft. It is ridiculous to suggest that employers don’t have the ability to dismiss under-performing staff; employers are able to terminate the employment of any employee on grounds of capability, conduct or performance, they’re just not entitled to do it unfairly.

The Government is already consulting on reducing the ability for workers to access employment tribunals. Currently a worker has to be employed for a year before they have protection against unfair dismissal, so Beercroft’s proposals already apply for thousands of workers, and the Government is considering extending this qualifying period to two years.

This will effectively alienate thousands of workers, mostly young, from any access to any kind of justice or fairness in the workplace.

The vast majority of employers treat their staff well and fairly but these changes will allow the worst kinds of employers to get away with treating people however they want, simply sacking workers whose faces don’t fit. This is hardly an indicator of a decent, progressive society.

Nor will these changes do anything positive for economic performance.

:: Kevin Rowan is regional secretary of the Northern TUC