Trade Union Freedom & Agency Workers Bills
I really wanted to attend tonight's rallies in support of the Trade Union Freedom Bill to be published by John McDonnell tomorrow and the Agency Workers Bill that Paul Farrelly is presenting tomorrow, but I have a speaking engagement outside London about opposing Trident renewal that makes it impossible.
Britain in the 21st century is a country where the rights of workers to fair and equal treatment - and for those workers to organise themselves to fight for fair and equal treatment - are under severe attack. It is absurd to the point of farce that we should have to demand equal rights for agency staff who doing the same or similar job for the same employer as their permanent co-workers. And it is indefensible to place multiple obstacles in the way of trades unions organising to win those rights.
So the playing field is at present tilted grossly against workers and unions and the Trade Union Freedom Bill must be supported to balance things out. It is right that workers on strike should not face the threat of sacking, right that employers should not be able to use injunctions to prevent industrial action, right that employers should have to provide relevant information to unions, just as unions go through a - currently – over complicated notification procedure when industrial action is expected.
The Trade Union Freedom Bill if enacted, as I hope it will be, simply provides for a level playing field on which workers can organise in unions to protect their jobs, their employment rights and those of their fellow union members. The government opposes restoration of trade union rights and the Agency Workers Bill too. That just underlines the importance of a change of policy direction so that workers cannot not be treated as employment fodder any longer.