Stop the Trade Union Bill

The Trade Union Bill currently before Parliament is unfair, unnecessary and undemocratic and will severely restrict working people’s ability to organise to defend their jobs and pay, and to campaign for a fairer society.  UNISON is campaigning with the TUC and other unions to oppose this attack on the rights of working people and their unions.

UNISON is campaigning against it because we believe MPs should be focusing on the real problems our country faces and working with everyone, including trade unions, to solve them, rather than taking away people’s right to be supported at work.  They need to give us the respect we deserve: stop fighting our right to be represented and supported.

UNISON General Secretary, Dave Prentis, gave evidence in Parliament during the committee stage of this controversial bill on 15 October 2015.  He told MPs:

“My view, very strongly, is that the bill as worded is a major attack on workers’ rights in this country and makes industrial relations, in particular in public services, far more difficult.

“There are three major acts of parliament covering what we do. We are the most regulated section of the economy, if not in the western world. This only adds to that over-regulation.”

The bill undermines the right to strike
The bill subjects trade union members to unprecedented levels of civil and criminal penalties, regulations and technical and monitoring requirements that will effectively end the right to strike.

The option to go on strike is an important democratic right because, although it is only ever used as a last resort, it provides people with another opportunity to put pressure on their employers to resolve disagreements.

Dave Prentis when giving evidence, pointed out that there were only 160 instances of industrial action last year, after 640 ballots – just a quarter, because in those other instances the unions had negotiated settlements.

And when one MP asked him a pointed question about lost productivity through strikes, he asked the member to consider the income lost by striking members.

“Our low-paid women can’t afford to lose a day’s pay. There must be something drastically wrong [for them to strike]. They are not motivated by aggrandizement, but by something that’s unfair.”

The use of agency workers during strikes undermines the right to strike and could make public services unsafe
Employers will be allowed to bring in agency workers when their employees are on strike, which as well as undermining the right to strike could impact on the safety and quality of the services normally provided by trained and qualified staff.

The bill undermines the right to peaceful protest
When UNISON members protest during strikes they already comply with a detailed Code of Practice but the bill would allow the police to issue ASBOs to people on picket lines, it will give employers the ability to use an injunction to stop the protest, it will require a picket line organiser to wear an identifying badge or armband and be at the picket at all times or contactable by the police at short notice, and it will require all activities to be announced at least 14 days in advance, including details as specific as the words in Facebook posts.

Peaceful protest is an important part of an open and democratic society and there should be no place for a law that makes criminals of people making their voice heard in this way.

The bill will impact on core union activities
The bill will severely damage core union activities in the workplace through restrictions to facility time and removal of ‘check off’.

Mr Prentis said the bill’s attack on facility time was “regressive” and if enacted would have a detrimental effect on the “fabric of the work we do as a union”, including the work of learning reps, which benefits thousands of low-paid public service workers.

He said “Removing the check-off system, where union subs are deducted from members’ pay each month, serves no purpose other than to disrupt unions’ ability to function.”

The bill would restrict UNISON’s ability to campaign for social justice
The bill will undermine UNISON’s ability to campaign on social justice issues – from large issues such as fair pay for public service workers, to local campaign such as stopping hospital closures – by attacking our political funds.

TUC General Secretary, Frances O’Grady, said that the legislation would make it impossible to defend jobs and pay and conditions at work.

“We believe that the real aim of this bill, and the proposals that go with it, is to give employers new ways to take unions to court, impose penalties, and to seek damages and injunctions against unions. The approach is straight out of Norman Tebbit’s text in the 1980s.”

Trade unions improve the UK for everyone
UNISON and other trade unions are a fundamental part of UK society and have had a positive impact on all citizens through achievements like: a national minimum wage; the abolition of child labour; improved worker safety; improving living standards by reducing the number of hours in the working week; improved parental leave; equality legislation; minimum holiday and sickness entitlements.

Dave Prentis said “This Bill is vindictive and spiteful, and threatens to put industrial relations back decades.”

“Ministers cannot be allowed to succeed in silencing working people and their unions. That would not only be bad for those who need our help most, but for democracy too.”