ACAS Code of Practice on Time Off for Trade Union Duties and Activities

I thank the Minister for introducing the draft code of practice. As we debate it, we should bear in mind that it comes at a time of increasingly strained relations between some trade unions and employers. ACAS has a duty to provide practical guidance on the time off to be permitted by employers to trade union officials and members. It therefore produces this code of practice, which must be approved by Parliament. While the general purpose of the code of practice is to aid and improve the effectiveness of relationships between employers and trade unions and offer guidance for employers, employees and trade unions, all of which is sensible, I would like to take this opportunity to ask the Minister a couple of questions. First, anyone who has read the newspapers knows that we face an economic crisis greater than anything in living memory. Honda workers have been on extended leave, many thousands of workers have been made redundant and the weekend press tells us, among other things, that BT is offering staff long holidays in return for a substantial wage reduction—yet here we are discussing leave for union representatives paid for by employers so that they can undertake union activities as if nothing has happened. Although I acknowledge the purpose of the code and our need to debate it, do the Government not understand that to the layman this sounds like fiddling while Rome burns? My other question is more specific. In February, workers went on strike when Total employed an exclusively Italian and Portuguese workforce—not British workers but nevertheless all EU workers—to construct an extension at its Lindsey oil refinery. Sympathy strikes, which are currently illegal, sprang up quickly, and by 4 February, 22 other sites had been affected with an estimated 6,000 workers walking out. The dispute was settled in the end when Total offered 100 new jobs to be advertised by local contractors. I am not proposing a debate on whether Total or the union was in the right, but had a deal not been reached, which would have resulted in the Government being faced with a spate of illegal sympathy strikes, what would they have done? Perhaps I should ask what they will do when that happens.