Lords accept weakened concessions on the Trade Union Bill

04 May 2016

The House of Lords yesterday accepted the government’s amendments to the Trade Union Bill, allowing the Tory proposals to reach Royal Assent today.

In the Commons last week, the Tories softened some of the concessions won in the Lords, including by removing any written guarantee they would roll out e-balloting for trade unions. However, the government has promised to conduct an independent review into introducing the voting system and Business Minister Nick Boles has verbally confirmed the Tories will put e-balloting into practice if this review finds it to be safe.

A major win in the Lords was the removal of Clause 13 of the Trade Union Bill, which removed the government’s right to impose a cap on facility time in public sector organisations. This clause has now been reinstated, although the Tories agreed to soften it by committing to take no action for at least three years. In the first two years, data on facility time will be collected, and in the third year employers will have the opportunity to manage facility time levels independently before the government steps in with an overall cap.

Even in the Commons last week, the Bill continued to receive wide criticism from the opposition, including that collecting and analysing data on facility time will be costly and does not represent value for money for the taxpayer; and that the imposition of Clause 13 on devolved governments will lead to legal action from the Welsh Assembly.

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