My Lords, I declare my interests as president of the British Dietetic Association, a TUC-affiliated union, and an unpaid adviser to BALPA, the pilots’ union. I also remind the Committee, as I do virtually every time I speak on the trade unions, that 30% of trade unionists—in fact, slightly more, we estimate—vote for the Conservative Party in general elections. Sometimes we tend to forget that and to think that the trade union movement is a sort of Labour Party at play. It is not. It is as diverse, almost, as the rest of the country.
In speaking about electronic balloting, I point out that I am always pleased when Governments carry out what is in their manifestos. It is not something that I have been used to for the whole of my political life. However, I must say to the Minister that at no point in the Conservative Party manifesto is anything mentioned about electronic balloting not being allowed. Therefore, this clause in the Bill is in no way connected with the election manifesto, although quite a few other clauses are and I will not be opposing them.
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I think that the Government are under the illusion that a lower turnout would somehow help to prevent industrial action. There is not much evidence for that. If anything, the people who do not vote may be less likely to support industrial action, but I do not think that one really knows. However, I know that strikes are not undertaken lightly. I have never been on strike in my life, but that is not unusual. Most trade unionists have never been on strike. They join their trade union for a wide variety of reasons. For instance, lollipop ladies who join UNISON get £5,000-worth of life insurance—an extremely valuable benefit that comes with their subscription. Most other unions offer a package of services. My union, Unite, offers a free legal advice service to all its members. I must say, having used it on two occasions, that it is an excellent service staffed by good solicitors.
I digress slightly, but by tabling my amendment I am not saying that this is the only way to deal with electronic balloting. There are, after all, five separate amendments on it. We will not force them to a Division, but I hope that the Minister will take the opportunity after the debate to look carefully at what has been said and who is in favour. She will have had a paper from 16 of what I would call the most moderate unions in Britain, all affiliated to the TUC. It says:
“At a time when many government departments are adopting a ‘digital first’ approach it is perverse that the … bill prevents unions”,
from running online ballots. It continues:
“If the government wishes for unions to ballot … members more often, and to shorten timeframes for industrial action”,
then unions should be allowed to,
“operate in the most efficient way possible”.
The First Division Association, which is the union of the most senior civil servants and which would look at how to make this work, has stated:
“The continued prohibition of electronic balloting for statutory ballots supports the view that the purpose of these reforms is to impede trade unions rather than encourage democracy as claimed”.
Despite this opportunity to make a positive reform, the Government have chosen to retain the ban on electronic balloting. These are not wild people.
As the Minister will know, because she was good enough to meet BALPA with me last week, and in response to her request, the general secretary of BALPA, Jim McAuslan, sent her a two-page letter, three-quarters of which is a list of organisations that have allowed electronic balloting to take place without any problems coming up. I will quote one other group that is not normally found in the same box as the TUC. The Institute of Directors has stated:
“Provided that a fair and transparent system of electronic voting can be delivered, there is no reason why—in return for asking for a higher level of legitimacy—the union movement should not be allowed to embrace technological advances to increase participation”.
That is fairly clear.
My challenge to the Minister and to the Government is to take the words of Nick Boles in another place that the Government did not object in principle to the introduction of e-balloting, but they had reservations about security. My view is that those reservations can be addressed and that, in a fast-moving technological world, they are not significant enough to keep this out of the Bill. The technology moves extremely fast. My amendment, like the others, provides safeguards in the implementation of the proposed new clause. It does not say that unions can set up their own electronic balloting company and have a closed system. All the amendments, in some way or other, provide for checks and balances that would enable the reservations of the Minister to be met.
Recently, an organisation called WebRoots Democracy produced a rather thick report dealing with many of the objections to e-balloting and pointing out ways forward. What is certain is that we will not get those ways forward and we will not end up where we want to be unless this goes into the Bill. So I ask the Minister to go away, rethink, look at what can be done and take note of the very strong feeling in many parts of this House that the time has come for the legislation to be put in place. This is a reform that can be made to work and I urge the Minister to make it possible.