Clause 22 - Employment tribunals
Employment Bill
10:30 am
Mr Philip Hammond (Runnymede and Weybridge, Conservative)
The hon. Gentleman highlights the weakness that we object to in the Bill's architecture. He will find no reference to a paid representative anywhere in the Bill because there is none. The Trades Union Congress brief tells me that the Government intend to limit the application of the clause to paid representatives, but the Government have not told me that in the Bill. We have been exploring the issue, and I suspect that the Minister will be happy to confirm that proposed new subsection (1A)(b) will indeed be limited to paid representatives. That is the import of what he has told us.
There is a gap in the armoury that the Minister is giving tribunals through regulations, and I must admit to a tad of suspicion that it is being left for political reasons. I want an even-handed approach to be taken with those who abuse the tribunal, regardless of what type of representative they are or whom they represent, and we shall come to that in a moment. The Minister is arming himself to the teeth to deal with vexatious remunerated representatives, but—if I understand his rejection of the amendment even in principle—he refuses to empower the tribunal through regulations to deal with unremunerated representatives.