Clause 43 - Union learning representatives
Employment Bill
10:00 am
Mr Philip Hammond (Runnymede and Weybridge, Conservative)
My hon. Friend is right and he leads me to an important point. He says that employers' organisations have been opposed to this part of the Bill; let me explain what happened. I think that I am right in saying that when they thought, as the consultation led them to think, that they were being invited to endorse a statutory framework for trade union learning reps, where those learning reps were appointed by agreement between the employer and the employee, the majority of them were comfortable with that arrangement. They did not understand at that stage of the consultation that the Government were proposing to introduce a unilateral right for trade unions to impose union learning reps on a workplace. That is what the majority of employer organisations find extremely difficult to contemplate.
On that point, the Trades Union Congress brief for today's debate says that
''the Government completed its consultation exercise on the TUC's proposal to put Union Learning Representatives on a statutory footing''.
There is no suggestion there that the proposal is the Government's brilliant idea: it is something that the bosses in Congress house or Transport house, or whatever it is called, have told the Government to put into the Bill. The brief continues:
''The consultation revealed overwhelming support for the principle.''
The Engineering Employers Federation's brief for the same debate says:
''Union Learning Representatives (Clause 43)—This proposal has been opposed by all employer bodies''.
There seems to be a slight discrepancy there.
There were 89 responses to the consultation. It would be useful if the Minister, instead of listing every one, would tell the Committee, by broad category, who those respondents were. It may be true, as the TUC says, that the consultation revealed overwhelming support for the principle—that is, the support of a large majority of the respondents—whereas, as the EEF says, the proposal is opposed by all employer bodies. That could easily be the case if the majority of respondents were trade unions. It would help if the Minister would clarify that later.
It must also be said that the framing of the clause and the way in which the Government seek to proceed betray their view of industry. The clause appears to suggest that training will be done and employees will be informed about their training needs and have their training needs analysed only if trade unions become involved, if appointed or elected representatives—or perhaps not properly qualified representatives; we shall come to that issue later—are involved in the process. The Bill glosses over the fact that many good employers have large, expensive and elaborate professional training management structures in their companies, and it does not address the way in which trade union learning reps slot into the existing organisation. There is a world of difference between a workplace in which an employer has no effective training or mentoring arrangements, where a union learning rep might be introducing employees for the first time to some of the training opportunities available to them, and a workplace that is committed to the training and empowerment through learning of its work force. I am sure that the Minister will agree with me, and acknowledge that the computer company IBM is a fine example of such a company. It happens to be based in my constituency, so I achieve a double objective by using it as an example.
That company has an elaborate and exemplary system of training and retraining members of its work force so that, as its business changes, they can re-learn appropriate skills and be redeployed within the business wherever possible. They can thus expand their skill base and improve their earnings potential within the business. That training is always, rightly, focused on the needs of the business. Employer-financed and employer-based training will and should be focused on the needs of the employer's business and designed to give the employee an opportunity to advance his position and enhance his deployable skills within that business.
There is no acknowledgment at all in the clause of the role of employers and management structures. There is no requirement for union learning reps to work within an established structure of training and learning in the workplace. In fact, there are no constraints at all in the Bill. The Minister might tell us of some that will be introduced in guidance.