TUC quiz – What do you know about Grant Shapp’s 16 point plan to “deal with the unions”?
Test your knowledge on the Government's wishlist to deconstruct and diminish workers' rights.
Complete this quiz on the IER stall at TUC congress, and sign up to our newsletter for a chance to win:
-
£50’s worth of News from Nowhere book tokens
-
An IER subscription to our labour law books (worth £50)
-
A subscription to the Campaign for Trade Union Freedom newsletter
Grant Shapps wants to:
Results
Stark isn’t it? Starker still, that 3 of the 16 points have already been passed:
- allowing agency staff to work during strikes – by amending the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Business Regulations
- increasing the fines for unlawful action – by amending the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992
- Minimum service levels must be delivered during strikes – Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023
More information on Grant Shapp’s deeply authoritarian 16 points can be found here.
Why not stay up to date with employment rights by signing up to the weekly IER newsletter here?
Stark isn’t it? Starker still, that 3 of the 16 points have already been passed:
- allowing agency staff to work during strikes – by amending the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Business Regulations
- increasing the fines for unlawful action – by amending the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992
- Minimum service levels must be delivered during strikes – Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023
More information on Grant Shapp’s deeply authoritarian 16 points can be found here.
Why not stay up to date with employment rights by signing up to the weekly IER newsletter here?
#1. Raise the strike-ballot support threshold from 40% to ***** of eligible workers
The Trade Union Act 2016 set industrial-action ballot thresholds at 40% support (higher than many sitting MPs achieve). Grant Shapps wants to increase this to 50%.
#2. ... Require unions to give ***** notice of industrial action instead of 2.
Current industrial action ballots have to be served to employers with two weeks notice, allowing employers plenty of time to minimise the impact of strike action, in order to decrease the bargaining power of workers. Grant Shapps wants to double that notice period to four weeks.
#3. ... Limit ballot mandate to ***** event/s of strike action. Currently, the mandate allows any number of strikes over 6 months.
With unions already mired in costly ballot administration, limiting the validity of industrial action ballots to just one instance would increase the cost and administrative burden on unions, effectively fining workers’ organisations for an ongoing dispute in order to coerce them in to early settlement for fear of bancruptcy. Absurd!
#4. ... Require ballot papers to clearly state the reason for the dispute and **********
Despite employers regularly using their own communications channels (as well as rumour in the workplace) to sway or intimidate workers away from taking strike action, Grant Shapps now wants to offer them a place to influence workers on the ballot paper itself. An employer has no business interfering in a private democratic process between a union and its members.
#5. ... Increase the damages cap for unlawful strikes from £250,000 to *******
Another way of financially ‘rigging the game’ against unions. If a legitimate union ballot falls foul of the enormous administrative hurdles placed before it by the employer and the Government, and the union members strike anyway, the union can be fined. Again this measure is designed to either coerce a union into settling early by inducing financial hardship, or cause discontent among union members by making the union appear impotent (or not on the same side as the members if they are financially forced to repudiate the action). Win/win for the Government and employers, lose/lose for workers and their organisations.
