Europe has this, and I'm a small employer. The question "what will it cost to let this person go if I need to?" goes through my head even before "is this person

Europe has this, and I'm a small employer. The question "what will it cost to let this person go if I need to?" goes through my head even before "is this person qualified?". Stronger worker protections lead to a divide between people who have jobs and those for who there are not enough jobs. Go look at southern Europe or South Africa. What workers need is the security of a viable alternative to their employer. Us techies can change jobs at will and have no need for this type of protection. The best general alternative I'm aware of is a publicly funded unemployment and retraining scheme such as A-kasse in Denmark. Even better would be UBI, but that would require more political will. Society needs private entrepreneurs and corporations, and should work to support them. In turn, society should take what it needs (better put, society should only allow so much to be privatised) as to ensure stability and quality of life for citizens. Business is hard. Don't make it harder in the name of transferring the responsibilities of society as a whole onto the companies.