Special allowance for disabled government employees?

Is the British government's intention to allow employers to "buy" employment rights back from employees a good idea or a bad idea?

• The idea (which originally came from the Beecroft report) is that employers will be able to give employees between £2,000 and £50,000 worth of shares in the company, tax-free, in exchange for the employee giving up their legal rights to sue for unfair dismissal, their right to a redundancy payment if made redundant, and for women their right to give short notice of intent to return from maternity leave. Existing employees will have the right to refuse the swap, but employers will be able to make the swap a condition of employment for new employees, if they so choose. The idea was announced at the 2012 Conservative Party conference, and it sounds like the government are pretty intent on passing it into law.

• Answer:

  I find the idea horrendous. I don't find this idea of undercutting to get work  positive: a country like Britain should be competing on quality not price. You must feel that you are pretty incompetent if you feel you have to offer someone £50 000 to stop them suing you in case you are a bad manager. It would be much easier not to break the law.   Lowering terms and conditions is not the way of attracting the best people. They will go elsewhere.