Clause 25 - Detriment for use of union services or
Employment Relations Bill
3:15 pm
Mr Gerry Sutcliffe (Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Employment Relations, Competition and Consumers), Department of Trade and Industry; Bradford South, Labour)
Whatever I say, the hon. Gentleman will not agree, so I would probably be wasting both my time and the Committee's time by explaining our position. The consultation focused on the details of the judgment, in the context of the Bill and in the spirit of our attempt to meet the requirements of all parties relating to that judgment. The consultation was conducted in the spirit of employment relations today. That spirit was different in the days of the Wilson and Palmer case, when the hon. Gentleman's party, which has a different philosophy of dealing with industrial relations, was in power. We have tried to ensure that we support the position as fairly and clearly as possible, so that employers, unions and individuals know where they are. As I said earlier, however, I hope that the provisions will not apply in too many cases, because the spirit that we are trying to engender is different from that which prevailed when the problem first arose.