Trade Union Bill attacks rights of all working people

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It has been reported that the government intends to publish today (Wednesday) highly controversial legislation set to undermine trade unions and workers employment rights.

The laws will make strike action harder and make it easy for strikes to be deemed illegal on technicalities. They are also attempting to undermine the current way in which trade unions fund their political levies - the means by which a trade union campaigns and lobbies politicians on behalf of its members. They also plan to criminalise certain picketing, and impose a tax on trade union members to expand the powers of the government certification officer, the overseeing civil servant, they are putting in charge of the new rule changes.

Furthermore, the government plans to give employers the right to hire strike-breaking agency staff, as well as require a union to give the employer at least a fortnight's notice before the industrial action starts; and reduce the amount of time that a ballot lasts for before a new one must be held, with the intent of increasing the costs on trade unions.

Responding to the publication today (Wednesday) of the Trade Union Bill, the CWU general secretary, Dave Ward, said:

Dave Ward GS "This is not just an attack on trade unions but the rights of all working people in our country, and should be seen in the light of yet another act by the Tories in government since 2010 to undermine those rights.

"This is a government elected with the support of less than a quarter of the electorate pushing through legislation that goes further than what they said in a manifesto they stood on only a couple of months ago.

"The Tories like to proclaim themselves to be the 'party of the workers,' but after a budget in which they cut the pay of those in work, and after we've seen the longest fall in living standards since the Victorian era; they're now trying to undermine the main voice of the workforce in our country."

There are many more changes in the Bill and there will be a further updated guide made available once the details of the planned legislation are known in full.
Find out more about what the Bill means on the TUC's Touchstone blog: Trade Unions Bill: Unfair, unnecessary and undemocratic by TUC general secretary, Frances O'Grady.