# Government employment reforms — and why Jeanette's worried

- **Episode:** [183](https://agents.truthliesandwork.com/episodes/183.md) (2025-03-27)
- **Type:** interview
- **Tags:** employment-reforms, government, employment-rights
- **Time:** 26:29–32:10 (start 1589s)
- **Listen:** [https://truthliesandwork.com/183?t=1589](https://truthliesandwork.com/183?t=1589)

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[26:29] Jeanette Ramsden: So, they're bringing employment rights from day one, which means that, you know, People can't get rid of people. They used to think that you can get rid of people in the probationary period and in the first 2 years of service because they can't take them to tribunal. The Labour government are bringing in that they have rights, full employment rights from day one. They are bringing more stringent, yet again, more stringent policies around contract working. They are bringing in the right to switch off, which means that people have to, they only have to work when they're engaged to work and they don't have to work outside of that flexibility. So, those are just sort of 3, just right off the top of my head of things that they're bringing in. So, and I can see why they are doing that because UK has got traditionally one of the worst working hour weeks of the whole of Europe. So, I can see why they're sort of trying to bring it in, but it's not necessarily the best way of doing it
[27:38] Leanne Elliott: And is that because you think it's going to take away from the ability of employers, business owners, to build in this flexibility? Or because kind of for, for people listening, they might be thinking, why is that bad? Because, because I should have my rights from day one and I should be able to, uh, you know, switch off after work. What is the downside of these types of policies coming in?
[28:00] Jeanette Ramsden: What we need is good employers that treat their employees well and do a fair working week and don't force people to work long You know, long and difficult hours. The employment rights from day one, what I'm super concerned about is people making recruitment decisions. It's a difficult decision because you sort of wanted to engage with somebody and the cost of hiring somebody is high anyway. I think it could have a very discriminatory effect on the workforce. People will hire in their own model, not actually taking a chance on bringing a different individual, perhaps somebody that has a disability. And it just does alienate certain parts of our workforce. And that I really worry about as a nation. I think there's a lot of untapped potential out there, but I can see that employers won't take a risk because if it goes wrong, they have no ability to be able to change I think that's a really interesting point of view because it's understandable, isn't it?
[29:07] Leanne Elliott: Business owners would be fearful of making those decisions for that potential consequence. I mean, everything you've said is, is it speaks so much to your values as a leader, the values of The Curve Group. Can you maybe just give us a bit of an insight into that in terms of this shift to a reduced working week, everything you said about authentic leadership and empowering people? What are the values of Curve Group and how is all, how does all this fit into it?
[29:33] Jeanette Ramsden: We would love to be the go-to provider of HR and recruitment services to our chosen markets, which is sort of that 100 to 3,000 employees. And we love helping organizations, you know, and transforming working lives. You know, I always say to the team, you know, we're not doctors and nurses, we don't save lives, but actually, and the whole Maslow's hierarchy of needs, You know, what people do for a job, um, and they spend a lot of time at work. Let's face it, even at 35 hours, it's still a lot of, uh, time that you spend at work. And what you do within that, um, you know, can make a massive difference on how you live and feel about your life. And we're all different. And, you know, just, I have got so many examples of where, um, we've helped individuals, um, it saved their marriages because we've given them £3,000 or £4,000 more increase because we've recruited them to a new job and they've been able to take the family on holiday, or we've actually dealt with what has been a very difficult situation in terms of an employee and the employer not agreeing on things and sort of managing that scenario to a successful conclusion between the employer and employee. That's life-changing. That is really important. And as I say, I've met people that I've done a nice reference for in the past that has meant that they've gone on to have a full career and get out of quite an abusive relationship. I mean, and it goes on. What we do is so important. And anybody that— people always say to me, what makes— why do people not work out in The Curve Group? And it's where they don't take seriously this, I am going to transform this person's working life. And it might be helping a line manager through a difficult situation and helping organizations grow very quickly and effectively. Or it can be sort of dealing ethically with having to make redundancies and a big change, or if there's been a big acquisition that we've, you know, helped and ensure that that's gone effectively and really, really smoothly. It's life-changing. It's human beings. Every situation is different, and doing it in a really professional, uh, way that— where you actually care is kind of what we're about