A fellow worker has just drawn attention to an article by Professor Keith Ewing which had escaped my notice -

Last week Vince Cable, the secretary of state for business, innovation and skills, produced a disgraceful document entitled "The employer's charter", proudly published on his departmental website.
In the same week that the governor of the Bank of England told us inflation-adjusted wages were falling in a manner unseen since the 1920s, Vince Cable is inciting bosses to take advantage of workers' vulnerability, by telling them in his charter that they have the right to ask their workers to take a pay cut, and to contact women on maternity leave about when they are planning to return.
Apart from the unnecessary nastiness of this initiative, it does provoke thought about what a corresponding workers' charter would look like, in a country where employers are constantly moaning about the great regulatory burden they face.

Vince Cable, what a piece of work! I think 'work' was the word I was looking for.

The Employer's Charter
(AKA Vince's Vindictive Vomitus) -

As an employer - as long as you act fairly and reasonably - you are entitled to:

ask an employee to take their annual leave at a time that suits your business

contact a woman on maternity leave and ask when she plans to return

make an employee redundant if your business takes a downward turn

ask an employee to take a pay cut

withhold pay from an employee when they are on strike

ask an employee whether they would be willing to opt-out from the 48 hour limit in the Working Time Regulations

reject an employee’s request to work flexibly if you have a legitimate business reason

talk to your employees about their performance and how they can improve

dismiss an employee for poor performance

stop providing work to an agency worker (as long as they are not employed by you)

ask an employee about their future career plans, including retirement

Of course this is just a bit of self-promotion by the Vile Vince. There can't be many employers in the UK who don't know all this already, who don't put all the above into practice. Why, many employers in this country wipe their arses on employment law on a regular basis, knowing that they won't be prosecuted.
All Vince is doing here is saying, "Just because I'm called a Liberal-Democrat don't think that I have a conscience. I despise the working class as much as any power-mad manager or gaffer."