Labour wobbles on union rights

Barry Camfield, TGWU Regional Secretary, South East and East Anglia, sounds the alarm.

The White Paper on statutory recognition is anxiously awaited by trade unionists. We must get this right first time, as there is likely to be only one piece of industrial relations legislation in this Parliament.

The 1996 Road to the Manifesto proposed "a legal obligation on employers to recognise a union for collective bargaining on the issues of pay, hours and holidays, and training. The bargaining agenda could be extended to other issues by mutual agreement." However, the 1997 election manifesto diluted this to: "where a majority of the relevant workforce vote in a ballot for the union to represent them, the union should be recognised."

Statutory recognition was policy for both the Conservatives and Labour during the 1970s, but this was scrapped in the Thatcher-Major years. In the current debate the Government must favour either union recognition or employer resistance. Hence the argument over the manifesto phrase -- should it mean a majority of those voting or a majority of those eligible to vote?

An 80% "yes" vote on a 60% turnout would not be enough to win recognition if the law required a union to win a majority of the electorate. Employers want to define the electorate to include those unsympathetic to trade unionism in the ballot, as American employers do. They also insist that small firms be exempt from the whole procedure.

1998 is the 50th anniversary of the UN's Declaration of Human Rights enshrining a universal right to form and join a union. If this is to mean anything, Labour must legislate to give an absolute right to trade union representation -- when the worker chooses, not at the employer's discretion.

Statutory recognition, individual representation and working time are all areas where the Government could make a difference. A supportive legislative framework would set the tone for a new pluralism at work and strengthen relations between Labour and the unions.

previous article ·  May '98 index of LLB ·  write to LLB ·  LLB home page ·  next article