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Attention: industrial and political correspondents

TUC response to Employment Relations Bill

Commenting on the publication today (Tuesday) of the new Employment Relations Bill, TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said:

'We welcome today’s Employment Relations Bill. It contains many useful measures pressed by unions. But it does not go far enough and leaves people at work in the UK with less protection than that enjoyed in the rest of Europe, as today’s report of working time abuses so graphically shows.

'Unions will be pleased that the Bill will close gaps in the law highlighted by last year's Wilson Palmer case, and will stop employers bribing staff with better terms and conditions if they opt out of collective bargaining agreements. And there will be similar relief that employers in workplaces where the union has established that a clear majority of staff want union recognition will no longer be able to waste time inventing obstacles to frustrate workplace democracy.

'Information and Consultation at work promises to be the biggest change in industrial relations for a generation as the majority of people at work will gain a right to be heard for the first time.

'But there will be frustration and disappointment that the Government has not gone further in taking us up to international standards.

'Perhaps the most important omission is the promised sanction against unfair labour practices during union recognition campaigns. Without this protection, anti-union companies like BSkyB will be able to continue to scare, bully and frighten employees away from voting for union protection at work.

'There will also be dismay at the news that people working in small firms are still to be denied the right to have their union recognised at work. It is often in the smallest companies where workers are most in need of the help and support that a union provides, to continue to deny six million workers a voice at work is grossly unfair. And the news that people who don't vote in recognition campaigns are still to count as votes against, and people on strike can still be sacked once the dispute enters its ninth week will also be received very poorly.

'However, unions will be heartened by the news that the Government is intending to make it possible for unions to uphold their rule books and expel elements of the far right from union membership.

'We will be pressing hard to make this Bill better for people at work as it progresses through Parliament.'

Notes to Editors:

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Contacts: Media enquiries: Liz Chinchen 020 7467 1248 or 07699 744115 (pager) or email media@tuc.org.uk

Press release (600 words) issued 2 Dec 2003