My Lords, I am grateful to my noble kinsman for that Answer.
I have waited a long time to use that expression, and it is a pleasure to do so. The judgment of the Court of Appeal on 14 January was entirely predictable: that coastguards are what lawyers call limb (b) workers. However, the decision of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, in response to that, was …
My Lords, what a pleasure it is to follow the noble and learned Lord, Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd, in supporting the Government’s amendments and Amendment 167 in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Hayman, and others, which all propose that the Secretary of State should publish statutory guidance for t…
The answer to that question is complex, but there is one proposition that is not: institutions that constitute an arm of the state are bound by international law. That will apply to the Local Government Pension Scheme and, as I understand it, to other pension schemes.
First, let me say that collective bargaining is not a dirty word. The Government recognise the important role that collective bargaining can play in supporting good workplace relations. However, the United Kingdom has traditionally taken a flexible, decentralised approach to setting wages. Our focus…
My Lords, I am pleased to support Amendments 359 and 361 in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Stowell of Beeston. On the basis of those amendments, I will not advance the amendment I proposed in Committee for a stand-alone offence for transport workers. My amendment sought to give transport worke…
LordsCommittee Stage5 February 20262 contributions
My Lords, I shall speak to Amendment 218C; I express my gratitude to the noble Baroness, Lady Janke, for supporting it. This amendment would require the Secretary of State to make regulations to ensure that pension schemes invest their funds in a manner that is
“consistent with those provisions of …
I am sorry to interrupt the noble Baroness, but I emphasise that this amendment is to propose regulations that will be drafted by the Secretary of State. One would expect the Secretary of State to determine whatever issues there are about international law. By the way, international law itself is qu…
My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Lord, Lord Sandhurst, and I am particularly grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Harper, for advancing Amendments 70 and 78, which I drafted. Unfortunately, I was unable to be here last week when I thought they would be debated. I disagree with nothing that…
I raise a point on Amendment 378B, in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Blencathra. Unless I have missed something in that lengthy amendment, the effect of it might well be to interfere with the exercise of the right to picket in an industrial dispute. The right to picket is protected by Section 220 …
My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Morgan of Cotes. My proposed Amendment 356F is complementary, in a sense, to hers. My amendment would create a specific offence of assaulting a transport worker at work. It would be an equivalent protection to that given to retail workers…
My Lords, I wonder whether my noble friend the Minister could find time in his busy timetable to see me and the RMT about this, because I did not quite understand what the distinction was between the creation of an offence of assaulting a retail worker at work, in Clause 37, and assaulting a transpo…
Thanks for bearing with me. In December 1909, all this changed. The Judicial Committee of this House held, in the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants v Osborne, that the statutory definition was exhaustive and it was therefore unlawful for a union to spend money on any object other than the regu…
I think it was suggested that it might be difficult, if not impossible, for members to find out how their political fund was expended. Does the Minister agree that Section 30 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 gives every member the right to inspect not merely the accou…
My Lords, no one hearing the speeches of the noble Lords who have spoken could be other than sympathetic to the objects of the amendments in this group.
However, although it may seem churlish, I have a point on the definition of freelancers in Amendment 161. It is not a technical point; it is about…
My Lords, the House will not want a legal argument between me and the noble Baroness.
Yes, not again—we rehearsed that in Committee. However, those cases do not support the proposition that the noble Baroness advanced. The case of Young, James and Webster v the United Kingdom concerned three railway workers, who were compelled to join a trade union against their wishes—a closed shop—…
My Lords, it is a huge honour and privilege to be the first to congratulate my noble friend Lady Shawcross-Wolfson on her superb and very moving maiden speech. I am particularly pleased that my noble friend chose a debate on welfare policy to make her debut. Having served in the Department for Work …
My Lords, may I rather impudently congratulate the Government on their Amendments 112 to 116 and 117 to 119? In Committee, I moved a series of amendments to similar effect; namely, that the output of the negotiating body should not impose a detriment to existing terms and conditions and should permi…
My Lords, the purpose of this amendment is to probe the extent to which the new category of seafarers, “GB-linked ships’ crews”, should benefit from other employment rights apart from the one bestowed by the Bill, which gives them a right in relation to consultation over collective redundancies, as …
Given that the noble Lord, Lord Howard, and I practised in employment tribunals, does he agree with me that there are now strong procedures by which employment tribunals can strike out vexatious claims without there being a full hearing? I had the pleasure, of course, of appearing against the noble …
My Lords, I feel obliged to add a word to my noble friend Lord Berkeley’s amendment, because I was counsel for the union in the Deliveroo case which the noble Lord, Lord Russell, has mentioned. The issue in that case was slightly tangential to that raised by my noble friend; the question there was w…
My Lords, it is a bit daunting, at 9.50 pm, to speak to a series of amendments relating to the right to strike. I thank my noble friend the Minister for taking time out of her very busy schedule to discuss these amendments, and amendments on collective bargaining, with me last week. The meeting was …
My Lords, I am very grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Jones of Moulsecoomb, for her support and her economic analysis of the consequences of the absence of the effective right to strike. I am grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Fox of Buckley. I am not sure I quite understood her question, but I…
Will the noble Baroness permit me to intervene? She spoke about Article 11 of the European Convention and freedom of association, and the right to join a trade union and be a member for the protection of one’s interests. This is spelled out in Article 11.1. She mentioned the case of Young, James and…
Let me put it more respectfully: I disagree. That is not what the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights on Article 11 demonstrates. There is no right, if you are a member of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, to opt out of any contribution or expenditure it makes on any par…
My Lords, I will speak to Amendments 152 to 179, which are intended not to undermine but to improve the SSSNB.
First, I will say a word about collective bargaining relevant to these amendments and to later amendments dealing with that subject. The term was coined by Beatrice Webb in 1891. It means …
My Lords, I am most grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Jones of Moulsecoomb, for her fulsome support of the amendments.
I am of course shocked that the noble Baroness, Lady Barran, and I have reached a point of disagreement, and will make one or two points arising from what she said. She thinks t…
My Lords, Amendment 143 is intended to provide a tougher remedy for breach of the obligation, which is a very modest one, to consult in cases of collective redundancy. At present, the remedy is an award of loss of earnings capped at a maximum of 90 days, which the Bill proposes to increase to 180 da…
My Lords, I am grateful to my noble friend Lord Davies for his support. I am also grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Sharpe, for his contribution. In response to him, I note that the proposal is not that employment tribunals should make a declaration that a dismissal was void and of no effect. Instead…
My Lords, I get the impression that there is a bit of a misunderstanding around the nature of employment tribunals. I spent the first half of a long career at the Bar doing employment tribunal cases, many of them unfair dismissal cases. In fact, the first case I ever did—pro bono, by the way—was an …
I absolutely agree that most cases never get to a full hearing; only a tiny minority ever do. The noble Baroness is right that many cases settle, of course. Many are conciliated, because there is now compulsory conciliation by ACAS, but many are withdrawn by the employee. You have to visualise it, a…
Can the noble Lord indicate what he thinks the value of an impact assessment is that does not weigh the benefits that ensue from the legislation but only the costs?
My Lords, I shall make four short points on these amendments, all of which I oppose. First, the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, suggested that employers would get locked into guaranteed hours. I remind him that all contracts of employment may be varied by mutual agreement or, if not, they can be terminated a…
I endorse what my noble friend Lord Davies said a moment ago. A trade union is defined by Section 1 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act, and it is an organisation of workers the primary purpose of which is to regulate relations between employers and workers. That is the only …