Clause 31 - Non-completion of statutory procedure: adjustment of awards
Employment Bill
10:45 am
Mr Tony Lloyd (Manchester Central, Labour)
In passing, I note that invitations from the Opposition to the Minister to set all aspects of Government regulations in aspic have so far been unsuccessful. I hope that he will tell the Committee that the review will now have to proceed apace so that we can unlock those aspects of the Bill.
The clause contains provisions to reduce, or increase, the value of an award depending on how statutory procedures have been complied with. In subsection (4) there is a duty to make a reduction or increase, but that is offset by
''exceptional circumstances which would make a reduction or increase of that percentage unjust or inequitable''.
I ask the Minister to reflect on the words ''exceptional circumstances'' and on whether the subsection would be better without the word exceptional. The turning point would then be the lack of justice or equity, rather than the exceptional nature of the circumstances. In some discrimination cases that appear before a tribunal, such as bullying cases, it is not necessarily reasonable to expect the person being bullied to pursue a complaint when the person making the judgment has been the source of the bullying. That applies where the bullying is of a fairly straightforward kind.
According to a survey by the Equal Opportunities Commission, in one third of sexual harassment cases the perpetrator is the line boss, and in a further third the perpetrator is a director or senior manager. In other words, those who sit in judgment at different points in the statutory process could be the perpetrators of such unacceptable behaviour. The clause need not be changed fundamentally, but the word ''exceptional'' is not appropriate, because although such a circumstance would certainly be ''unjust and inequitable'', it might not be exceptional.