Clause 18
Employment Bill [Lords]
1:00 pm
Nick Palmer (PPS (Malcolm Wicks, Minister of State), Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform; Broxtowe, Labour)
I want to raise a few points on the amendments. First, we have a briefing from Thompsons Solicitors, which acted for ASLEF in the court case that has given rise to this particular piece of legislation. It is critical of clause 18 as a whole, but its argument is slightly different from the ones mentioned so far. I will relate it to the amendment under discussion. Its concern is that even if a union could exclude members of the BNP, the party could change its name or have a slightly different variant every year to evade the exclusion. I am not sure how realistic that is because in practice, any serious political party would find it very difficult to change its name every year.
The same difficulty arises with amendment No. 18 in which the hon. Gentleman seeks to limit the exclusion to parties that are officially registered. However, the overtly neo-Nazi group Combat 18, which seeks to prepare for racial war, is not a registered political party. It stretches tolerance to the point of insanity if we say that we should force trade unions to associate with members of a group that is preparing for racial war. The issue is not really whether it is a political party as defined in the amendment, but whether we should enable trade unions to draw the line somewhere in a reasonable manner.
With regard to the hon. Gentleman’s point about limiting the period of membership to 12 months, I have to declare an interest. I was a communist when I was young, although I was not a party member. I was quite open about it. I can imagine a situation in which that could be used against me professionally—outside my current profession perhaps.
The provision about fairness is relevant. Proposed new subsection (4G)(b) requires that any decision be taken fairly. In my case, the involvement was 40 years ago. Reference was made to the possibility of the parents being involved. Any court would rule in practice that such an association had long lapsed and that it was not fair within the meaning of the common law to use it against the individual.
In today’s society, trade unions are voluntary associations of people who come together for a common cause. It is open to anyone to form a separate trade union. The hon. Gentleman suggested that there was a danger that someone might do so under the Bill. Well, the BNP has already set up the trade union, Solidarity, for people who do not wish to be part of the TUC. It has a right to do that. As long as the party is legal, I do not have a problem with it setting up its own trade union. It is a reasonable solution to the problem.
As long as being a member of a particular trade union does not carry with it significant career and financial implications—it does not under the Bill—it should be a matter of freedom of association to allow people to join unions whose objectives are similar to their own. It is reasonable to allow unions to exclude people whose objectives conflict directly with their own, in the same way that I might have difficulty were I to apply to join the Conservative party.