The debate on Employment Rights, started the day, and dealt with Composite 6 and motions 104-6 pp 73-74 in the final agenda document. The debate is published on youtube. I have clipped the whole debate so that you can see/hear the CEC reply to all four motions.
Composite 6 Employment rights bill is on pp163-164 of the final agenda document. It argues that the compromises necessary to secure passage of the ERA were needed and necessary reforms and that further legislation is needed.
I moved the composite, and my notes for the speech are/were,
President, Congress: Dave Levy London Region moving Composite 6 – Employment Rights and Strengthening More Rights for all Workers
In the CEC political strategy paper yesterday, much was made of the success in getting the Employment Rights Act onto the statute book, and it is a success, but it’s been a long fight and neither the GMB, nor TULO have got all that we asked for.
First, we had to get the demands into Labour’s Green Paper, the “New Deal for Workers”, then the Manifesto, and then after Rayner’s resignation to sustain the position of the Bill within Government, against both business lobbying and their acolytes in the Labour Party and Government.
In addition, we need to recognise the malign influence of the House of Lords, now packed with light weight political apparatchiks who have no respect for the convention that the House of Lords doesn’t block legislation that implements manifesto promises.
We should recognise that solving the latter problem is in the Government’s hands although they are running out of time.
There are things we still need:
Strike ballots still need 50% turnouts, and while notice has been reduced, its still there and the role of e-voting is still not what we want or need.
Not all the Tory anti-union/anti-strike laws have been repealed.
They do not have a satisfactory answer to single worker status, nor to zero hour contracts.
The Equal Pay provisions have also been delayed.
We never thought it would be easy but I thought once it was in the manifesto, we would get it right, but there is more to do.
The CEC will suggest that we don’t need a second act, but primary legislation needs to be repealed, secondary legislation is much easier to reverse and the way things are the odds of a Labour led 2nd administration don’t look good.
We need the whole deal, together with an increased minimum wage and a better SSP policy.
We should aspire that the UK is beacon to the world for trade union rights.
Please support the composite.
Since M104 on Bullying, came from my delegation, I was expecting it. I consider this a very important development of GMB policy. It’s a massive loophole that if you are bullied because of a protected characteristic, you can seek remedy in an industrial tribunal, but not if you are bullied by an equal opportunity bully. The motion text is on pp73-74 of the final agenda document
This was followed by M106 on 3rd Party Removals. This occurs when an employee of a service provider is accused of some wrong doing, and denied access by the contractor. In these circumstances the accused has no right to a fair due process and their employer is often left with no choice but to remove them from the contract. While the law is that the employer must seek to find them work and role presumably on another contract, often this is not available. There were two good speeches on this motion, Clive Murton seconding summarises the injustice, The CEC qualification was to my mind very poor on the qualification, the whole point is to create a legal minimum standard with the threat of judicial review to allow site negotiation.
I think these two motions are important developments in GMB policy and I will be checking to see if they make it into the policy book and follow up if not.