My Lords, in moving Amendment 76, which also stands in the names of my noble friends Lord Mendelsohn and Lord Collins, I will speak to the other amendments in this group, and will especially oppose that Clause 12 stand part of the Bill. We see no need at all for this provision.
Clauses 12 and 13 are some of the most pernicious in this rather nasty little Bill. Why? They undermine good industrial relations—we are talking about facility
time. They give enormous and unnecessary powers to Ministers over areas that are none of their business; they were introduced without proper consultation—just a rather hurried, minor one over the summer, in contradiction to Cabinet Office guidelines on consultation; they are not based on any evidence; they have not been demanded by public sector employers; oh—and they were not in the Conservative manifesto.
Clause 12 would provide public sector—very widely defined—employers to log, detail and publish how much time union reps spend on facility time. This is time which allows union, safety and learning reps to do their job, to speak for or advise the workforce and to contribute to healthy industrial relations. Worse is that Clause 13 gives a Minister, not managers, a wide-ranging power—indeed, a blank cheque—to cap such rights to facility time to an arbitrary and undisclosed amount for an unspecified group of employees. That is why I want to make some general points about both clauses, as they explain both these amendments and those in subsequent groups.
The main issue is that the question of how to decide and document facility time is one for management, not for Ministers. Managers know the geographical spread of their workforce, the current issues, the challenges and the types of problems on which they need to work with workforce reps, and virtually every manager knows that their own staff negotiate far better than full-time officials. These lay reps are of and from the shop floor. They understand the business and, importantly, they will be there during the implementation of any agreement, to iron out any creases and to ensure that any deal sticks. As the Royal College of Nursing says on what lies behind our objection to Clauses 12 and 13, “The RCN’s lay members take time and effort to advise and represent their colleagues, while the union itself invests in these reps to bring skill, knowledge and experience to the workplace, facilitating effective partnership working”.
This is a cost-effective way of managing any organisation. Such input towards good relations is as true for small unions, such as the FDA; with just 20,000 members, it has only 30 employees, meaning that most work is undertaken by lay officials. Similarly, for the podiatrists, who have fewer than 10,000 members, facility time is vital, as that organisation is too small to have many union officials, so it is heavily reliant on learning, equality, safety and union representatives. It is a professional body committed to improving standards, which is what its members’ facility time is all about.
I therefore ask the Minister, where on earth is the evidence that we need Clause 12 to report on time spent on representation, safety or learning? Research at City University London shows that facilities for union reps in the public sector are very similar to those in the private sector, and from neither have we heard, nor have the Government demonstrated, calls for change. Indeed, evidence points the other way, with facility time being beneficial to the safety of work environments, staff welfare and, consequently, particularly in the case of the health service, patients. For that reason, the RCN has warned that Clauses 12 and 13 may have unintended consequences for patient safety. The benefits of facility time are well known to anyone with an
ounce of management experience, which I would have assumed included the Minister. Therefore, Amendment 78 would require these benefits also to be documented.
5.15 pm
Facility time allows reps to engage in meaningful negotiation with employers to facilitate, innovate and change. They often do so far more effectively than full-time union officials, who may arrive at the workplace only on the morning of a negotiation, whereas employee reps well understand the work situation, their colleagues’ roles and the crunch issues, and they often find imaginative ways around a problem. Certainly, when representing members in either grievance or disciplinary matters, lay reps have a far better grasp of the intricacies of a particular situation than any outside trade union official, no matter how well briefed. So lay involvement usually leads to earlier intervention and fewer tribunal cases and appeals.
Furthermore, unions have a positive record in promoting skills and training and in improving industrial relations. That means higher morale, which is better for employees and employers. It also means less sick pay, more productivity and, in the case of the health service, better patient care. ACAS has shown that union representation helps communication, improves workforce engagement and ensures that employees’ concerns are listened to and addressed before they become a problem. Crucially, union input at times of restructuring, relocation, job evaluation, performance measurements, grading and similar issues is invaluable to staff and employers alike.
The City University London research has shown that a large proportion of public sector management agrees that union reps can be trusted to act with honesty and integrity, and also that they work closely with management to introduce change. BIS’s predecessor, the DTI, found cost savings associated with union representation, with fewer tribunal cases, fewer injuries, fewer work-related illnesses and lower dismissal rates. Why do the Government want to undermine that?
We heard in the debate on a previous group about the red tape being put on trade unions, but the red tape involved in Clause 13 should worry every employer caught by this. In this case, it is the employer rather than the trade unions that will have to produce endless extra paperwork. Despite all the Government’s commitment to cutting red tape, to less regulation and to reducing bureaucracy, here they are demanding extensive new documentation from a range of small, medium and large employers. The list we were sent yesterday gave nine possible pieces of information to be documented, including the distinction between facilities provided for duties and those provided for activities. I am sure that employers, head teachers, housing association CEOs and university deans have better things to do with their time than to try to document, let alone monetarise, all that.
I note that the Government’s impact assessment suggests that,
“it is not expected that the proposed legislation will result in a significant impact on trade union representatives carrying out their trade union duties for which there is a legal entitlement to reasonable paid time off work”.
That begs some questions. First, what evidence do the Government have that the proposed legislation will
not result in a significant impact on union reps carrying out duties for which there is a legal entitlement, and what do they consider “significant”? Is the real attempt behind this to reduce such facility time and, if so, why? Do the Government propose to measure and monitor the impact of this change, and how are they proposing to do so?
The impact assessment also suggests that it will cost employers £2.2 million to familiarise themselves with the new rules and £2.4 million to report a year. It is very hard to believe that this is not an underestimate given how much information will have to be collected, which the Government seem to say will take only eight hours per employer. Is that true for employers with thousands of staff and hundreds of reps? Even if that figure is accurate, why impose it on employers with no related benefit? Because, of course, the published information will show nothing. A high level of facility time might be needed where lots of meetings are taking place because of large-scale redundancies, mergers, relocation or indeed sudden scale-ups following flooding or foot and mouth disease. What does a high level of facility time for safety and union reps indicate? It could indicate really meaningful negotiation on new standards, job evaluation or workplace education, or it could indicate poor management causing lots of grievances and sicknesses. Or maybe it indicates lazy union reps pulling a sort of sickie because they prefer endless meetings rather than nursing patients or teaching children. I have a feeling that the Government think it is the last one. I tend to think it is one of the first two.
Above all, the amount of facility time and the way of documenting and accounting for it should be a matter for management, not for Ministers. As managers themselves, the Government can already, and have, embedded levels of facility time in their own departmental agreements with the unions. If they want to, they can count, negotiate away, reduce or increase those levels. So the Government have always been able to cap facility time for their own employees. This clause is about the public sector outside of central government, which surely ought to have the freedom, as does central government, to decide what is best for its own workforce and circumstances. Management really do know best, and it should be left to them.
With regard to local councils, as the Minister has said, the Local Government Transparency Code already requires information on facility time, so there is no need to include them in the Bill. Hence Amendment 87, tabled by my noble friends Lord Beecham and Lord Harris. On local authorities, perhaps I might refer to one notable local government leader, John Pollard, the leader of Cornwall Council, who the Local Government Chronicle lists as one of the top 25 most powerful people in local government. He recognises the positive contribution that local trade union members make in their workplaces in Cornwall. The council places great value on the constructive relationships it has with local unions and the commitment of those members to the delivery of good-quality services. The council says that its good record of addressing employment issues is helped very much by locally determined facility time arrangements. Therefore, Cornwall Council is extremely worried that this Bill would hamper its discretion in agreeing working arrangements with the
unions. Its members find that the Bill is totally inconsistent with the Government’s localism principles and their commitment to devolution. It wants to protect its local discretion with regard to facility time.
Our principal fear is that this provision on facility time, rather than encouraging good employer-employee relations, will undermine them. It will disrupt existing relations which, on the whole, are good. How much better it would be if the Government sought, if not industrial democracy, at least co-operation, which does not happen by accident. Smoothing day-to-day working relationships and building good relations leads to happier workforces. We know that turnover in organisations with no union reps is higher than in those with union reps. It is an indication of the work that they do to facilitate really good working relations. Facility time reductions will come at the expense of constructive industrial relations and undermine good joint working between unions and employers. The whole idea of documenting facility time can only be a run-in to the next clause, Clause 13, which gives the power to cap it, with no evidence and to the detriment of industrial relations.
In view of the powers proposed, which are extensive and uncertain in scope, our Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee has called for regulations under this new section to be by affirmative procedure. Our Amendment 83 allows for this, and we assume that it will be accepted by the Minister today. I beg to move.