Remember the Warwick Agreement? It was the 2004 deal between trade union leaders and ministers over the future shape of employment policy that formed the basis of Labour's 2005 general election manifesto.
Well, "Warwick Two" is now on the cards. The trade unions have sorted out their priorities for a fourth term of Labour government, and now various meetings are being held in the run-up to the Labour Party's policy forum in July.
Leaving aside the fairly fundamental issue of who will actually form the next government, this sort of thing does have a real impact in the workplace. Among the things that came out of the first Warwick Agreement were:
• a rise in statutory holiday entitlements by eight days (to cover the unions' concerns that not everyone got bank holidays in addition to their basic entitlement);
• increased statutory redundancy pay; and
• a deal in Europe on the extension of employment protection to temporary and agency workers.
According to the labour movement newspaper Tribune, the unions want to see a Warwick Two which promises:
• new rules to protect workers whose companies are bought out by private equity firms (since TUPE does not normally apply in these situations);
• mandatory equal pay audits;
• an easing of the balloting rules for industrial action so that unions can consult their members by email or phone;
• a right for workers to take secondary industrial action where the dispute is about another plant or site run by the same company;
• extension of the role of the Gangmasters Licensing Authority into the construction industry;
• a greater commitment by government to "Buy British"; and
• reform of the national minimum wage, possibly ending the difference between youth and adult rates and keeping a role for the Low Pay Commission.
With Labour's national conference now effectively sidelined in terms of policy making, the process through which all this will make its way into a future election manifesto is likely to be pretty opaque.
As Tribune reports one union source saying: "No one wants to have the discussion [only] on the floor of the National Policy Forum."
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Comments (1)
Well we know who is really running the Country now - look at the whole of the last Warwick agreement and you will see a precis of Labour activity over the last term. If people were really aware of the TUs power behind the throne, and that their own views are completely irrelevant because policy has already been decided, then they would understand why it often feels like we are living in a socialist nightmare. The workplace "reforms" are stamping out entrepreneurialism and anyone who earns a valid return for their risk and hard work will have it taxed away, becuase of these union bosses' generally embraced Marxist philosophies. In simple words this means that there will be no success, only equality; no striving, only sharing and that UKplc will be a 3rd world economy within 10 years.
We need another Mrs T to conquer these TU monsters and to save us from losing our power to dream.
Posted by CR | July 7, 2008 10:54 AM
Posted on July 7, 2008 10:54