FT社评：英国新型劳动合同不可行

At a time of high unemployment, the British government should do all it can to encourage businesses to create jobs. And yet, the labour market remains over-regulated. Excessive employment protection places a particularly heavy burden on small businesses, which would like to employ workers but are afraid of the consequences if things go wrong.

在失业率高企之际，英国政府应当竭尽所能鼓励企业创造工作岗位。但目前英国劳动力市场仍处于过度监管状态。过度的就业保护给小型企业带来了尤为沉重的负担，小型企业虽然有意雇佣员工，但又害怕一旦经济形势恶化无法及时裁员可能导致不良后果。

George Osborne, chancellor of the exchequer, has announced a new type of contract that should address some of these fears. Companies will be allowed to give new hires between ￡2,000 and ￡50,000 of shares that would be exempt from capital gains tax when sold. In return, the workers would renounce several rights, including the ability to claim unfair dismissal after two years in a job.

英国财政大臣乔治·奥斯本(George Osborne)近期公开介绍了一种新型劳动合同，希望能在一定程度上缓解企业的这种担忧。这种合同将允许公司给予新雇佣员工价值2000至5万英镑的公司股票，当员工出售股票时可以免交资本利得税。作为回报，员工将放弃数项权益，其中包括在职不短于两年者起诉企业不正当解雇的权利。

Mr Osborne’s aim may be to make life easier for start-ups. True, these companies yearn for greater flexibility because their future is more uncertain. But the chancellor should not expect them to sign up en masse. Owners may be reluctant to dilute their equity by giving out shares to people who they may then want to fire.

奥斯本也许希望给初创企业创造较为轻松的经营环境。确实，这类公司渴望更为灵活的雇佣政策，因为它们的经营前景存在更多的不确定性。但财政大臣很可能不会看到初创企业大量采用这一新型合同。因为企业所有者们或不愿将股权分给日后自己可能想要解雇的人，进而导致自身股权被稀释。

Attracting employees to the new scheme will be even harder. Staff would renounce the right to statutory redundancy payments, as well as the ability to request flexible working or time to train. Women would have to give notice much earlier of a firm date for their return from maternity leave. Workers typically value these rights well above a few thousand pounds.

吸引员工采用这一新型合约也许更加困难。员工将因此放弃获得法定遣散费的权利，以及要求弹性工作制或者培训机会的权利。女性员工必须提前更长时间将结束产假重返工作岗位的确切日期告知公司。通常来说，这些权利在员工眼中的价值远远超过几千英镑。

Even if they do not value their rights so highly, they may be reluctant to be paid in shares rather than cash. In the case of unlisted companies, it is unclear to whom they will be able to sell their shares. In many cases, the sole buyer will be the company’s founder, who will have the incentive to talk the price down.

即使员工不那么看重自己的这些权利，他们也可能不愿接受非现金的、以股权支付的形式。对于非上市公司而言，员工不清楚自己能将所持股票出售给谁。在很多情况下，公司创始人将是唯一的买方，他们完全有动机故意压价。

There is also a danger in linking employee share ownership with the surrender of employment rights. Share ownership has played a positive role in increasing workers’ engagement with their companies. The risk is that employees would begin to associate this with greater vulnerability rather than more responsibility.

将员工持股权与放弃劳动者权利联系起来还存在一大隐患。一直以来，员工持股在增进员工对公司业务的投入方面起到了积极作用。新合同的风险在于，员工可能把这些股权与更大的不确定性、而非更大的责任感联系在一起。

Mr Osborne is right to look at whether the UK’s labour law needs to be updated. Industrial tribunals are expensive and the process should be reformed. But the question of how to liberalise the labour market should be kept separate from that of how to encourage employee share ownership. Neither objective will benefit from mixing the two.

奥斯本审视英国劳动法规、从中寻找需要改进之处的做法是正确的。劳资法庭的费用昂贵并且审理流程应当进行改革。但是，如何放开劳动力市场，与如何鼓励员工持有企业股权，两个问题应分隔开来。将两者混在一起对任何一个目标都没有好处。