Trade Union Bill
Debate between Lord Monks and Baroness Neville-Rolfe
Lord Monks (Lab)
My Lords, I want to underline one point: British health and safety standards are the bedrock of European health and safety standards. The Single European Act—a great achievement of the Conservative Government at the time—allowed standards for health and safety to be set across Europe. I know that noble Lords opposite are delighted that the working time directive falls under this heading, and a lot of other things fall under it too. It demonstrated that if we had good health and safety regulations and other countries were brought into line with our standards, that would be in the interests of Britain. We raised standards across the European Union. There are not too many areas in the labour market where we have done that—in many areas we have tried to reduce them—but in health and safety we are top of the league.
Therefore, I hope that anything that the Government do in this area will continue the traditions of previous Conservative Governments, distinguished representatives of whom are sitting on the Benches opposite, and maintain high health and safety standards. We cut them at our peril.
Baroness Neville-Rolfe
My Lords, these amendments all seek to limit the information published under our transparency regulations by excluding certain types of trade union representative. I start by agreeing with the noble Baronesses, Lady Hayter and Lady Donaghy, about what health and safety and union learning representatives do for their organisations. The debate that we had about the dangers in the NHS, about heavy equipment and about many other areas showed how important health and safety is. Of course, there are duties on employers as well. If you sit on a public body or on a company board, you take these matters very seriously in this country, and that is a good thing. As my noble friend Lord Deben said, we have a strong record, although we always need to keep working at it. He gave examples of where trade union reps are very helpful in enforcing the detail of health and safety, which is so important. As the noble Lord, Lord Monks, said, we have taken our fine traditions in this area to Europe, and that has been important as well.
I also commend the work that the TUC and Unionlearn do right across the public and private sectors in working with adults who lack basic skills in numeracy and literacy, including peer support from union learning representatives.
Those sentiments do not jar with what we are proposing. I say in response to the noble Lord, Lord McKenzie of Luton, an employer must allow union representatives as much paid time off work as is necessary or reasonable to perform their statutory functions and duties, and we are not proposing to change this rule. We simply want to ensure—
Trade Union Bill
Debate between Lord Monks and Baroness Neville-Rolfe(8 years, 9 months ago)
Lords ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text
Baroness Neville-Rolfe
It is in the code, of course, but it is not in the legislation and it is not legally enforceable in the same way. As I have sought to explain, we have put the key provisions in the Bill so that they are observed. These are provisions that the vast majority of unions, as we have heard this evening, feel are entirely reasonable.
The second question related to concern that further legal action would mean that unions would distance themselves from picketing—I think I understood that correctly. The provisions in Clause 9 are perfectly reasonable and proportionate. The appointment of the picket organiser is already in the code and is well known to unions. I see no reason why unions should not comply with those provisions.
Lord Monks
The current relationship of the law to the code is important. The code is taken into account in any legal proceedings. For example, if there is intimidation, and there is nobody in charge of the picket line, that makes it a more serious offence than if somebody was there trying to stop it, as is often the case with a picket supervisor. It is not just a matter of wishy-washy voluntarism. A criminal offence is being committed, and the provisions of the code are taken into account. It is quite a powerful weapon. To make it rigid statute law that there should be, say, six pickets but there are seven there and the police are supposed to do something about that, seems to be asking for trouble rather than calming it down.
Baroness Neville-Rolfe
I note what the noble Lord says. In a sense, I think he is making the same point as the noble Lord, Lord Stoneham, made with his third question about why the code is not adequate. Examples from the Carr review and elsewhere, which I went through earlier, reveal that the code is not always followed. By putting elements of the code on a statutory footing in the Bill we will ensure consistency across all picketing activity, which will improve union accountability and public confidence.
The noble Lord, Lord Collins, mentioned human rights. I think the allegation is that the legal obligation to appoint a picket supervisor and to show credentials to the police is discriminatory. Unfortunately, as the Carr review heard last year, there is concerning evidence that pickets organised by unions can and do lead to unacceptable levels of intimidation. In the circumstances, the Government consider it important that unions take all the steps they reasonably can to co-operate with police and ensure that pickets pass off peacefully. These provisions are not disproportionate and are justified under Article 11 and the ILO conventions. Rather than delay the Committee on this issue, I should say that following the debate at Second Reading I wrote to the chairman of the EHRC on the various human rights aspects of the Bill.
Amendment 42 limits the provisions of Clause 9 only to picketing that is directly organised by the union and will create unhelpful distinctions between union-organised picketing and picketing that is encouraged by the union. It would lead to unnecessary confusion between what will be perceived as different types of picketing. The law should apply to all picketing.
On Amendment 45, the Bill sets out a number of requirements which, combined, make the provisions in Clause 9 work effectively. The key to achieving this is the appointment of the picket supervisor, who needs to be familiar with the code so that he or she can act as a source of knowledge and advice.
Trade Union Bill
Debate between Lord Monks and Baroness Neville-Rolfe(8 years, 9 months ago)
Lords ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text
Baroness Neville-Rolfe
My Lords, as the noble Baroness, Lady Smith, has said, the impact on party funding of Clauses 10 and 11 is being looked at by a Select Committee. I thank the chairman of the committee, the noble Lord, Lord Burns, who I am glad to see in his place, for taking on this burden, and all the noble Lords, some of whom are here this evening, who will be serving on and contributing to the Select Committee. I also thank the Committee for being so pragmatic in taking the groups led by Amendments 57, 66 and 68 together. There is such a lot of overlap. I will try to answer the questions under the various headings, as I have said that I would. Where I cannot, I will write to noble Lords.
I should welcome the noble Lord, Lord Wrigglesworth, to our debate on this Bill for the first time. He will be interested to know that the Minister, Nick Boles, will be giving evidence to the Select Committee tomorrow. It is also good to see the noble Lord, Lord MacKenzie of Culkein, contributing.
These clauses will give union members more information about what unions are doing with their money. They will ensure that the members’ contributions to the political fund are made only with their explicit assent. Contrary to what my noble friend Lord Balfe was saying, that is a clear manifesto commitment. We will legislate to ensure that trade unions use a transparent opt-in process for union subscriptions. As my noble friend Lord Leigh pointed out, there were transparency initiatives by Labour in the Labour years affecting corporate donations.
I think we all felt that it was very good to hear from my noble friend Lord King. Earlier this week he was kind enough to draw my attention to the exchange of papers on political funds that he had as Secretary of State for Employment with the then general secretary of the TUC, the late Len Murray.
Lord Monks
So the Bill was prepared without any knowledge of an agreement made by the previous Conservative Government with the TUC.
Baroness Neville-Rolfe
The first time that I saw the papers in relation to 1984, shown to me by my noble friend Lord King, was at the beginning of this week. I would have to ask others what they knew.
Baroness Neville-Rolfe
I thank the noble Lord for mentioning that because I am going to talk about the 10 years in a minute.
Clause 10 seeks to address the previous point by adopting a transparent opt-in process for union subscriptions. Additionally—in response to the point made by the noble Lord, Lord Stoneham—the only time a union member is informed of their choice to contribute is at the time of a political fund ballot, which happens only once every 10 years. Ten years is a long period of time to update members with the information they need about political fund contributions and activities. Clause 10 provides that members should decide whether to contribute every five years. This will ensure that members make their choice based on more current and transparent information of spending on political activities.
Moreover, the move to an opt-in approach for union members to contribute to political funds is in line with current best practice more broadly; that is an important point. I shall give two examples. In consumer law, reforms have reinforced transparency for consumers when they are charged for goods and services. The consumer rights directive was implemented in the UK in 2014. This reform reinforced the concept of express consent. Traders need the active consent of the consumer for all payments. Pre-ticked boxes are not permitted. Moreover, the Information Commissioner’s Office provides guidance on best practice in relation to direct-marketing communications. This recommends that best practice is to provide an unticked opt-in box and invite the person to confirm their agreement by ticking.
Lord Monks
I am sorry to make another intervention. In comparison with these examples, the amount of a union political fund contribution is, on average, about £2.50 per member per year. So that is the amount of money on an individual basis. We are talking about millions when all the aggregates are done, but for the individual this is not the biggest financial decision of their life.