Employment Bill [HL]

All right, my Lords, I will continue. DBERR is not being even-handed between workers and the unions when it claims, without a shred of proof, that there is no evidence of abuse by unions or the arbitrary persecution of individuals. Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. The Minister will know only too well from his former career—I am now looking in the direction of the noble Lord, Lord Jones, not straight opposite at the noble Lord, Lord Bach—that the trade unions have previously indulged in the blacklisting of individuals and businesses. That is all in the past, of course, but it has happened: boycotts, intimidatory mass picketing, fly-picketing and so on. Entire former mining communities are still riven, almost a quarter of a century later, by the bitterness engendered by the politically motivated miners’ strike of 1984. I am not sure that we can honestly say to everyone, ““You can trust the unions to do this properly””. Maybe we can trust them, but we have to be careful. A simple provision in this clause would bring it back into line with the meaning of the ASLEF judgment. It is not too much to ask to give an excluded union member, or a potential member, the right of appeal. It is up to the Government to solve the problem of the right of unions to exclude those who could be regarded, by any test of reasonableness, as inimical to the fair aims of the union and the ordinary rights of an individual in a free society. Will the Minister agree to consult constitutional lawyers further—I know that the noble Lord, Lord Lester, is a fine constitutional lawyer and I am sure that he will have a view—to restore a proper balance between the two interests without leaving the unions with an unfettered and perhaps unassailable discretion? As my noble friend has told your Lordships, we on this side of the House support the Government on the principle of the Bill—the noble Lord, Lord Bach, need not look so surprised—but that does not mean that we love 100 per cent of it. It is right at Second Reading to point out the slight errors that have been made. As the Government are apparently in a reforming mode, I hope, as I said, that they will continue to try to reduce the regulatory burden on businesses, large and small, and endeavour to make the law simpler and hence more easily understood by all.