CBI aims to curb strikes with tighter ballot rules

[TrueBlueTerrier]

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The main employers’ group has infuriated trade unions by calling for a legal change to raise the bar of support needed to mount strikes.

Under proposals by the CBI, ballot rules would be changed so that industrial action could go ahead only if 40 per cent of the balloted workforce support it, as well as a simple majority of those voting, which is the current requirement.

That would prevent strikes going ahead based on a relatively small turnout of active members, the business group said.

Such a rule would have prevented recent strikes over civil service redundancy terms by the Public and Commercial Services union, as well as last year’s RMT London Underground stoppages and a threatened strike this spring at Network Rail.

It would not, however, have averted the current strikes at British Airways or last year’s stoppages at Royal Mail.

Brendan Barber, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, said the CBI proposals were “a demolition job on the rights at work of their members’ staff – and a charter for exploitation by unscrupulous employers”.

But John Cridland, CBI deputy director-general, said: “I think it is a serious runner because the government will face a great deal of public anger if very necessary actions to deal with public spending result in strikes which the public as a whole believes are not justified.”

Unions have long feared a move by the Conservatives to toughen the laws on strike ballots, but nothing was proposed in the Tory manifesto and the Con-Lib coalition has not made any proposals along these lines. It has, however, pledged to review employment laws.

Mr Cridland said that, although days lost through strikes were running at historically low levels, business was worried about growing strike threats, involving a widening range of issues such as redundancy terms and pensions.

Mr Barber said the UK already had some of the toughest legal restrictions on the right to strike in the advanced world, with courts regularly ruling against ballots that showed majority support for action.

“Any further restrictions would be extremely unfair and almost certainly breach the UK’s international human rights obligations,” he said.

The CBI’s proposals are part of a package of measures aimed at sustaining businesses and jobs through a fragile recovery.

They include a controversial proposal to shorten the consultation period for collective redundancies from 90 to 30 days for companies seeking to make more than 100 people redundant, bringing it into line with the one-month period for smaller numbers.

The CBI said that would reduce uncertainty for staff and allow employers to reshape their workforces swiftly to respond to falls in demand.

The TUC said a 30-day period would not allow workforces any real chance to develop alternatives.

[BELIAL]

"Arbeit Macht Frei"

[mailman337]

"Arbeit Macht Frei"

It sure does if they get their fascist way!! Seig Heil !!

[Lounge Lizard]

Under proposals by the CBI, ballot rules would be changed so that industrial action could go ahead only if 40 per cent of the balloted workforce support it, as well as a simple majority of those voting, which is the current requirement.

- and do they want the same sort of rule for parliamentary and local authority elections, and if not why not ?

[DirtyHarry]

I like the title of their little group, CBI. I remember a time when those initials meant something, a time when we did have industry.
Now we live in a time where even Italy has more industry in her little finger, than we have here, shouldn't that w****r's, John Cridland's, title be, CVSB (Confederation of Very Small Businesses) deputy director- generalisimo?
Honestly, that w****r would be so at home in the year 1830, what a throwback! Dinosaur, even!!!

[Straight4ward]

Conversely, would it mean, for example, that 2010 & beyond would not have been ratified as less than 40% of those balloted voted for it?
Just a thought.