Clause 31 - Information and consultation
Employment Relations Bill
10:30 am
Mr Gerry Sutcliffe (Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Employment Relations, Competition and Consumers), Department of Trade and Industry; Bradford South, Labour)
We have a difference of opinion on who was rambling.
We did not get the hon. Gentleman's views about how to bring people together to create what we want to achieve; how to get people to change from an adversarial style to modern industrial relations because of the nature of European and global competition faced by the UK and in terms of and the things we hold dear. We are in a good position in the UK because of our high employment level. We want to maintain that and move to a higher level by making people more productive, allowing them to feel part of an organisation and understanding where it is going and what its requirements and staffing needs are. As my hon. Friend the Member for West Renfrewshire said in an earlier debate, many employees come up with good ideas as to how a company can progress. Information and consultation is not a one-way process; it can go the other way as well, with employees coming up with good information about a product or process that they may be involved with.
The clause 31 is designed to achieve a better understanding of relationships. The hon. Member for North-West Norfolk accused us of trying to have a one-size-fits-all approach. That is not the case. Clearly, in the negotiations on the framework, and how we introduce the directive, we have sought a voluntary aspect—we would prefer that to statutory provision. We want to encourage people to do things now and to build on the success of the many companies that, in conjunction with their employees, have already done what we are asking.
The hon. Gentleman asked us why we were using primary legislation, why it was not possible to implement all the agreed CBI-TUC framework under section 2(2) of the European Communities Act 1972. Clearly, the Bill gives us the opportunity to develop greater scope to make requirements relating to the framework document that has been agreed.
More than 100 companies and many unions responded to the documents that were produced in relation to high performance at workplaces. We had a number of roadshows. I attended five roadshows that brought together a variety of people, from many sectors, to look at the proposals in detail. We received broad support for the CBI-TUC framework document.
Others responded clearly in those round tables, including the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, the Engineering Employers Federation
and a variety of individual unions—as well as the TUC itself. Many Ministers were involved in the consultation discussions. I extend my thanks to my right hon. Friend the Minister for Industry and the Regions, and to my hon. Friends the Minister for Energy, E-Commerce and Postal Services, and the Under-Secretaries of State for Scotland and for Wales—colleagues who hosted some of the roadshows on the issues surrounding information for consultation.
The hon. Member for North-West Norfolk asked me about the role of the employment tribunal and the number of cases going there. We do not have a lot of the information, and we want to see what happens. However, we believe that it is important to provide employees with protection if they choose to take part in information consultation procedures, so that if they have problems they can complain to the tribunal.
We do not agree that the number of tribunal cases has been rising. In fact, numbers are reducing, for reasons stated earlier. Amendments to the Employment Rights Act 1996 and to the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 gave protections to employee representatives in cases of unfair dismissal and detriment. Clause 31 is an important part of the Bill, and I am pleased about the quality of this debate. I genuinely hope that we will see a sea change in the culture of employment relations.
Question put and agreed to.
Clause 31 ordered to stand part of the bill.