Analysis: How Adrian Beecroft proposed to rip up decades of employee rights to boost the economy "Potential employees would be told which regulations the employer had opted out of and would be free not to take the job if they did not wish to," he said. Similarly, employers could opt in to certain regulations if it was stopping them hiring people. For other companies, Mr Beecroft suggested stopping employers from being liable if their staff made discriminating comments against other employees, and for larger firms slashing the statutory redundancy notice by two thirds, from 90 days to just 30 days. Mr Beecroft's report even suggested a new licensing regime to make easier for small firms employ children, like newspaper delivery boys. The report was prepared for Downing St last August and September with the help of civil servants at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills Mr Beecroft's justification for this upheaval was to help economy to grow, and stop tens of thousands of jobs being lost from the imposition of more red tape. "Britain has a deficit crisis," Mr Beecroft said in the introduction, "from which the only escape is economic growth. Growth needs to be encouraged in every way possible. His report took aim at the Equality Act 2010, suggesting scrapping the part of the law which makes employers responsible for discrimination harassment by one employee or customer against another member of staff He suggested that the default retirement age could be reintroduced if its abolition proved to be problematic for companies keen to freshen up their workforce, while recommendations to simplify "the very complex rules governing employment tribunals" should be introduced as soon as possible. Specifically, he said that particular pay-outs for contentious aspects of unfair dismissal cases - such as "injury to feelings" - should be capped to limit the amount of cash being paid out by employers. Other measures include ditching flexible parental leave - which will cost the Exchequer around £150million a year, and "impose significant operational problems on business, he said. He added: "The proposal should (preferably) be scrapped or alternatively be deferred until the deficit has been eliminated." Mr Beecroft suggested businesses should be able, if they wished, to opt out of offering flexible working to staff. "If it is a burden to their particular business, they should, in the current economic climate, be free not to introduce it," he said. The very smallest firms - those with fewer than five employees - should also be allowed to opt out of a requirement to force them to automatically enrol staff in their company's pension scheme. The Government was at the time proposing that the measure applied to every firm with one or more employees, although this has since been delayed until 2015. Mr Beecroft said that the cost of introducing "auto-enrolment" pensions for micro-firms was "disproportionately high," while "the Government's own impact assessment suggests that up to 60,000 jobs will be lost as a result of auto-enrolment, mostly in hotels, restaurants and manufacturing." Other proposals included lifting immigration rules which force firms to check that a potential employee "has the right to work in the UK." Employers should also no longer have to advertise jobs at local Job Centre Plus offices before hiring a foreign worker, while the "Tupe" rules which forces companies which are taking over a supplier contract to adopt the terms and conditions of the supplier's workforce should be watered down. Mr Beecroft complained that this often led to terms and conditions being "harmonised up" for both sets of staff at the two companies, increasing teh burden and costs for the employer. The Beecroft report even looked at whether making it easier for firms, like newsagents, to employ children could stimulate the economy, by scrapping a costly plan to force small firms to register if they wanted to employ children. Seven months after it was received in Downing St, Mr Beecroft's radical manifesto for the overhaul of employment law is yet to be implemented. Of the 17 measures, 15 of them are now subject to a Whitehall call for evidence or are still being worked on. After opposition from the Lib Dems in the Coalition, two recommendations - when staff can pursue unfair dismissal claims and a delay over auto-enrolment pensions for micro firms - have been accepted by the Government. Despite the inevitable outrage from unions which the publication of the report will bring Mr Beecroft was at pains in the report to make clear he was not suggesting that his changes would make going to work any more dangerous or uncomfortable. He said: "A crisis such as the one Britain's economy faces demands radical changes to encourage employers to take on more staff and thus to grow. Some employee protections, such as those preventing discrimination or dangerous working conditions, must be maintained. Others, which encourage people to take employment but discourage employers from offering it, must be changed, permanently or temporarily, to help the country out of its difficulties.