Scottish TUC plan to ask MSPs to pledge not to implement aspects of the Trade Union Bill

1 April 2016

Members of the Scottish Parliament will be asked to pledge not to implement aspects of the Trade Union Bill that conflict with human rights obligations

Following a legal opinion highlighting how aspects of the Trade Union Bill are in conflict with human rights, the STUC has issued a Briefing Paper in which it calls on MSPs to sign a pledge not to implement aspects of the Bill. Below we reproduce that pledge

The Pledge

The aim of the pledge is to draw the attention of MSPs and parliamentary candidates to the nature of human rights obligations in Scotland and to alert signatories to the possibility that the Trade Union Bill may create a conflict of laws.

Faced with the possibility of legal conflict it is important for Government and public sector employees to know that MSPs are aware of the possible areas of conflict and have expressed a willingness to maintain ECHR compliance within Scottish Government, the Parliament and the wider “community” of devolved organisations, to the full extent required by the Scotland Act 1998.

It is in that context that current MSPs and future candidates are invited to pledge the following commitment:

1. I respect and value the requirement of devolution that any act of the Parliament or the Scottish Government must show direct compliance with the European Convention on Human Rights.
2. If elected to the Scottish Parliament, or appointed to the Scottish Government, I pledge to support full human rights compliance from the heights of the legislative process down to the basics of how we employ staff appointed on my authority
3. I therefore pledge to work to amend or disapply any provision of the Trade Union Bill which purports to require me to act in breach of the Scotland Act duty to uphold the European Convention on Human Rights