Economic Reform Act of 2024

“This bill gets several things right. Public contracts should take working conditions and environmental standards into account, not just the lowest price. People should be able to switch off after work without worrying about their boss calling them. And keeping workers on unpredictable hours for months should not be a cheap way for employers to avoid offering proper contracts. The stronger safety inspections are welcome, too. These are basic protections that people should be able to rely on.”

“ADFR fully supports most of the proposed measures. In particular, public procurement should follow the principle of governance, not mere government, and much less the skewed ideas of the so-called New Public Management: money cannot be a modern PA's endgame, and results ought to be judged by the path taken to achieve them. Likewise, regulating on-call contracts abuses (where they actually hide a full-time contract, with less benefits and protections) and safety negligence is necessary: we've always support businesses with generous budgetary allowance, as a liberal party, but at the same time we require a rigorous observance of the law, especially when human lives are involved. We'll admit our skepticism on the "Severance & Redundancy Pay" amendment: we believe it's an excessive requirement, especially for smaller companies, and unnecessary in a growing country such as ours (with a fairly low unemployment rate to boot). That said, we'll still support the package for the reasons above.”

“The proposal gives excessive power to regulators and increases costs and obligations for businesses. Strict inspections, heavy fines, generous severance, and mandatory workplace provisions could reduce flexibility and discourage investment. Employee protections should be maintained while preserving productive efficiency, employer flexibility, and accountability.”