- Conference
- 2008 National Delegate Conference
- Date
- 25 February 2008
- Decision
- Carried
Conference notes the continuing advances in individual employment rights in the coming years but believes that there are three areas to prioritise in 2008 and 2009: the enforcement of employment rights, the collective rights of trade unions and the achievement of a single equality act.
The legal right of agency workers to opt out of fees for services (April 2008), the extra 4 days statutory annual leave (April 2009), the consultation on extension of right to request flexible working for parents of children up to the age of 18 (October 2008 or April 2009) and the extension of maternity leave to 12 months (April 2010) is progress. Yet Conference still finds our ability to conduct industrial disputes to advance collective workforce improvements hampered by legal challenges from employers using anti-union legislation from the 1980s.
Again, whilst Conference acknowledges that the current Employment Bill will increase the powers of the employment agency inspectors, increase penalties and back pay for National Minimum Wage (NMW) violations, remove the existing dispute resolution procedures, increase the role of ACAS and reinforce the rights of unions to control their own rule book and to be able to expel BNP members there remains a major concern about members access to justice, the lack of representative actions and the culture of weak statutory enforcement.
Conference believes that one of the prime areas of unfair treatment is that of agency workers, whether in low paid or professional jobs, and therefore supports attempts to enact an EU agency workers directive to prevent unfair treatment, which came close under the Portuguese EU presidency. Conference condemns the UK government’s reluctance to honour a Warwick agreement commitment and resolves to support the Westminster private members bill on agency workers being promoted by Andrew Miller MP.
A disproportionately high number of agency workers are also migrants and the lack of rights for agency workers is another example of the problems that migrant workers face. Conference reaffirms our support for the UNISON Migrant Workers strategy and welcomes the establishment of the Migrant Workers Participation Project.
Conference welcomes the Commission on Vulnerable Employment (COVE) and its ongoing investigation. What is clear from the initial findings is that far greater resources are needed for enforcement, greater penalties for violations and co-operation and information sharing between the NMW Inspectorate, the Employment Agency Inspectorate, the Health and Safety Executive and the Gangmasters Licensing Authority.
Conference, nevertheless, still believes that the best protection a worker can have is the collective strength of a strong independent trade union and we therefore support the Trade Union Freedom Bill being promoted by the TUC and United Campaign for the Repeal of the Anti-Union Laws.
Unfair treatment also manifests itself in the uneven standards applied by the UK’s range of equality of legislation and was the impetus for the single Equality Bill. However conference believes that the green paper was a missed opportunity to harmonise up not down, to cover all strands and carers and to enhance the public sector duties.
Therefore Conference calls on the National Executive Council to:
1)continue to strongly support the campaign for a Trade Union Freedom Bill;
2)campaign for greater access to justice at the Employment Tribunal;
3)campaign for protection for agency workers from unfair treatment in both the EU and UK;
4)prioritise support for vulnerable and migrant workers;
5)campaign for greater resources for the enforcement agencies and more co-ordination;
6)continue campaigning for a high quality single equality act.