The Campaign for Trade Union Freedom has reacted angrily to continued attempts by Conservative members of the House of Lords to continue to frustrate the progress of the Employment Rights Bill to Royal Assent and becoming law.
The continuing attempts to water down already deficient legislation by Conservative peers has led to growing anger among trade unions and Labour MPs that one of the clear manifesto commitments is being thwarted by the unelected Lords.
There was an apparent agreement between the Government, some unions and employers in November, in regard to backtracking employment rights from day one to the position now where workers will have to fulfil a six-month qualifying period before being eligible to claim unfair dismissal.
The Campaign for Trade Union Freedom expressed serious reservations about giving into the Lords on this issue as the Lords were sure to come back for more.
As part of that deal, employers agreed that the current limit on compensation for unfair dismissal (£118,000 or one year’s salary whichever is the least) should be removed, clearly a good thing in itself but not a bargaining chip. The Tories objected, notwithstanding that the change would only benefit high earning claimants.
Lord John Hendy KC vice president of the Campaign for Trade Union Freedom commented on this: “It seems absurd that this 300 page Bill is still being blocked because the Tories do not wish unfairly dismissed high earning claimants to receive compensation reflecting their actual losses. The change will have no impact on the ordinary claimant who, if successful in obtaining an award of compensation for unfair dismissal, can expect a median award of £6,746, a figure unlikely to be altered significantly by a few more awards in excess of the current limit. The removal of the limit on unfair dismissal brings it into line with discrimination cases where there is no limit on compensation.”
The Campaign said ministers should not make any further concessions and should now force the Lords to continue to sit to get the Bill through before Christmas on pain of withdrawing from the agreement on day one rights. If necessary, the Government should use the Parliament Act to implement the Bill which would nullify the concession already made on day one rights.
An elected Government should be able to implement a manifesto commitment without continued obstruction by the unelected House of Lords.
The Campaign has called for a ERB2 to implement the many areas of collective workers’ rights missing from the current Bill including mandatory sectoral collective bargaining, the right to strike and to take solidarity action.