Again, just for the record—I thought I was speaking quite loudly, but just in case Members did not hear what I said—it was indeed the Labour party that blocked employment law from being devolved to Scotland. Hopefully the Labour party will reconsider, now that that is on the record.
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Amendment 32 confirms the need for the approval of the devolved Governments and the London Assembly before the Bill’s provisions can take effect in their areas of competence. So the Minister does have a choice: he can accept amendments proposing co-operation and respect for the policies and views of the devolved Parliaments, or he can choose to continue with the option of riding roughshod over them. It is up to the Minister and his Government.
Amendments 59, 60 and 61 attempt to create some simple rules of fairness. I have grave concerns about the lack of detail in the Bill with regard to what the Government and employers can do to be vindictive or creative when it comes to ways of making strikes harder to achieve and, possibly, ineffective. The reality is that workers withdraw their labour as a last resort, given that they suffer their own financial penalties in doing so. However, if strikes do not have some form of disruptive effect they carry no leverage, allowing employers carte blanche to impose real-terms wage cuts on key workers, or to change terms and conditions unilaterally.
Why is it only key workers whose wages are not allowed to increase in line with inflation? Why is it fine for this Government to lift limits on bankers’ bonuses and allow unlimited wage increases in the private sector, while public sector key workers have to accept real-terms wage cuts because the Government argue that increases would cause further inflation? The Government deny that their policies under the former Prime Minister caused inflation and mortgage increases. They have told us that inflation is a worldwide phenomenon, partly related to Putin’s illegal war. If that is the underlying reason for inflation, why are they targeting key workers such as nurses and ambulance drivers, claiming that their wage increases would further drive inflation? Why are they willing to pay more in revenue protection to train companies than the sums that they could have paid to workers to resolve the wages dispute? This is clear evidence of a culture war, and it is why we need to restrict the Government’s powers as much as possible.
Amendment 59 would provide for a maximum threshold in terms of a workforce that can be forced to work. Otherwise, as I have said, strikes could be rendered ineffective. My big concern is that in the case of transport, for instance, the Government could stipulate a service requirement that would effectively mean that the majority of the workforce needed to be deployed on a given strike day. Railway signalmen are an obvious example. If minimum services are to run throughout Great Britain, which seems to be the demand from some Tory Back
Benchers, that means that the majority of signalmen would be forced to work on strike days.
Amendment 60 is intended to ensure that the Government cannot impose a minimum service that companies have failed to match. Just this weekend we saw Avanti cancel services left, right and centre. It would surely be absurd for workers to be forced to work on strike days, and to provide a better service for those companies than they are able to provide on normal days. We know that the train companies rely on drivers working on rest days; if the companies cannot provide that better service without relying on workers giving up rest days, there is no way they should be able to provide it by putting pressure on drivers on strike days.
Amendment 61 provides for further limits on the extent of the minimum service that can be stipulated. I suggest that any normal person would agree that 20% is quite a high minimum service, but the operation of rail services at 20% has been used as an argument for the need for a rail strikes Bill. On Second Reading we heard Tory Back Benchers argue that more trains were needed to run kids to and from school, which is an absurd minimum service argument. That is why we need controls to stipulate the upper levels of minimum service that the Government and employers can try to impose.
In the past the Government have been keen to cite the International Labour Organisation so, logically, they should embrace amendments confirming that they will work with and comply with its obligations. Surely, given that they have held up the ILO’s endorsement of minimum service levels as an option, they will fully embrace what it has to say on these matters, and ensure compliance with convention No. 87.
The Government have also spoken previously about wanting to agree minimum service levels on a voluntary basis. Given the haste to get the Bill through, that concept is debatable, to say the least. If we extend that logic, however, they should embrace the concept of consultation and arbitration before making any regulations under proposed new section 234B. Our amendments 51 and 50 facilitate and outline the consultation with social partners and trade unions and the need for arbitration, and, importantly, the fact that the Secretary of State should not act in a way that is against arbitration recommendations. That would align with the international practice with which the Government apparently want to align themselves.
Similarly, we believe that employers should consult on proposed work notices with trade unions and, when agreement is not reached, should have a transparent arbitration process. Our amendment 43 outlines the use of ACAS for an arbitration panel. I would be happy to support other amendments outlining arbitration considerations, including amendment 117, tabled by my hon. and learned Friend the Member for Edinburgh South West (Joanna Cherry). We have tabled amendments relating to the way in which work notices should be served and consulted on, and employees notified of them, in the interests of transparency.
I also support the various amendments that are intended to ensure that employers cannot single out individuals and trade unionists in a work notice. That is a recipe for further full-on attacks on trade unionists and shop stewards, and is very much part of the Tory “divide and conquer” strategy, which is why controls and limits are
necessary. It is difficult to believe that these matters are up for debate and, worse, are likely to be defeated by Tory Lobby fodder.
Overall, nothing will change the fact that this is intended to be a vindicative Bill, impinging on the basic human right to strike. Any amendments that are accepted would only make the Bill less bad, but I believe that the amendments that the Government accept or—more probably—choose to vote down will be a test of whether they are serious about complying with international best practice. If they cannot agree to simple concepts such as consultation, negotiations on a voluntary basis, arbitration and not imposing unrealistic minimum service demands, they will be confirming that this is indeed the anti-strike, forced-working Bill. That is why we need employment law to be devolved to Scotland—but, more important, Scotland needs to be independent, and away from this UK Government in Westminster altogether.