PARLIAMENTARY COLUMN

Parliamentary column FIGHTING FOR TRADE UNION RIGHTS www.rmt.org.uk :: october 2008 :: RMTnews 9 The Employment Bill is due to be debated at Westminster again in the coming weeks and presents perhaps the last opportunity before the next general election to improve employment law. It is completely unacceptable that Britain has what are considered the "most restrictive labour laws in Europe". We probably have worse labour law protection now than 100 years ago after the Taff Vale decision. The time has surely come to recognise the huge imbalance of power which exists between employer and worker in the workplace and to start to strengthen the rights of the workforce. Often when employers challenge trade unions in the courts they are successful on technicalities because of the way employment legislation has been constructed. The three amendments on industrial action which are likely to be debated are extremely moderate. One of the main amendments simply amends the current law to require employers to cooperate when asked by the union to supply information to comply with the current legislation. At the moment the employer does not have to do so even though trade unions are required to keep completely up to date and accurate records to be provided to the employer if the union wishes to take industrial action. Unions are not best placed to keep accurate up to date records of member’s addresses, jobs and locations but employers are. The current law looks as if it were designed to make it practically impossible for a trade union to comply with the current trade union legislation. It of course was put in place by Margaret Thatcher but been left largely intact by the current Labour government. Another amendment strengthens the current law which bars agency staff from being used to break strikes. At the moment it is illegal for an agency to provide workers to take a strikers job but not for the employer to take on such a worker. This amendment would close this loophole. The third amendment strengthens to the better protection for workers taking part in lawful industrial action. The Employment Bill itself includes provisions mainly to tidy up the law on minimum wage and to help trade unions exclude fascists from their ranks. We will only have a few hours to consider amendments when the House of Commons gets to debate the Bill again. There are so many areas of employment law which need improving but given the shortage of time MPs have to prioritise amendments. Decisions will have to made about what other amendments we can pursue, - an extension of the youth rates of the national minimum wage for example and also amendments to extend the national minimum wage to non-domiciled seafarers. Finally, I have been inundated with messages regarding the Inland Revenue decision to unilaterally withdraw the eligibility of the Seafarers Earning Deduction (SED) for thousands of offshore workers resulting in an attack on earnings. The financial hardship will be compounded by the outrageous decision of the Inland Revenue to backdate the withdrawal to January 2008! Together with other parliamentary colleagues I will be vigorously challenging this decision. Katy Clark MP North Ayrshire and Arran T he United Campaign to Repeal the Anti-Trade Union Laws has launched a postcard campaign to MPs in support of amendments to the Employment Bill and copy has been inserted in this magazine. The Employment Bill will be back before the Commons soon after Parliament resumes in October and the proposed amendments would be a step forward to reclaiming fundamental trade union rights. You can help by sending your postcard to your MP that asks for support for the amendments. The rights for everyone to form effective trade unions, with the ability to engage in collective bargaining and to withdraw labour, have been recognised as fundamental in international law – including Treaties ratified by the UK and binding on it. But these have been seriously eroded particularly in the UK to such an extent that unions are almost powerless to prevent the growth of poverty and inequality. Pay and pensions do not keep pace with inflation and are falling in value. Dignity and equality in the workplace are under pressure. Yet the fundamental legitimacy of collective rights cannot be denied. The campaign continues to promote the issues contained in the TUC-backed Trade Union Rights and Freedoms Bill which the government failed to support last year. The trade union movement now has the opportunity for positive amendments to the Employment Bill, currently in Parliament. Everyone can help by spreading our postcard campaign encouraging MPs to support amendments. There may be three areas of the Employment Bill which can be amended to strengthen trade union rights, providing: • Better protection against dismissal or victimisation of workers taking part in lawful industrial action. • Filling loopholes in the law to prevent the use of agency workers replacing striking workers • Fairer balloting procedures cutting the 'red tape' that unions face when balloting members for industrial action by placing a duty on employers to supply information that trade unions need to comply with balloting requirements. These moderate amendments would still be a significant step towards that goal. Please support the campaign by sending the postcard included in this journal to your MP or you can write to them via the website at www.writetothem.com. Order more postcards from info@unitedcampaign.org.uk or download a model letter from our website at www.unitedcampaign.org.uk National secretary John Hendy QC LOBBY YOUR MP FOR AMENDMENTS TO THE EMPLOYMENT BILL