New clause 4 - Unofficial industrial action
Employment Relations Bill
10:30 am
Mr Jonathan Djanogly (Huntingdon, Conservative)
While not exactly concurring with the wording of the proposed new clause, there is much sense in it. One of the bizarre facts mentioned by the hon. Member for Weston-super-Mare (Brian Cotter) was that the more powers the unions have received under this Government, the more employee regulations—the weighing down on companies—and the more unofficial industrial actions there have been in recent years.
One of the problems I have with the new clause is that the proposal is for the Secretary of State to be in the driving seat, providing for penalties and so forth. We have a Secretary of State who, during the recent unofficial post strike, sat on the fence and refused consistently to come out and say that the unofficial strikers were wrong. Therefore, I would be highly dubious of giving her the powers to curtail the action.