Employment Bill [HL]

My Lords, there will no doubt be much more that my noble friend will want to say later on and we look forward to hearing him on Amendments Nos. 31 and 32, whether today or on another day. We are covering the general principle of Amendments Nos. 2, 33 and those also in my name. As we made clear in Committee, we on these Benches are not exactly happy with the ASLEF judgment. We are not happy that trade unions should be able to expel or exclude people solely on the basis of their membership of a legitimate political party. This sound principle was the reason for the protected status of political party membership in the first place. We all know that some so-called legitimate political parties have deeply unpleasant policies. The party whose member’s exclusion led to this judgment is a fine example of when a trade union might dislike a member signing up to it. However, trade unions already have sufficient powers to expel someone if their behaviour is so incompatible with trade union principles. This was the case even in the instance that led to the European Court of Human Rights judgment. However, we accept that the judgment has now been made and that we in the United Kingdom must now amend our laws in order to accommodate it. In order to mitigate the possible abuse of the power we are therefore now seeking to impose the tightest possible limitations and safeguards on when the power can be exercised. As currently drafted, Clause 18 gives the trade unions far more power than is desirable and is more than the judgment necessitates. We would like to see the power drawn more tightly in order to protect against unfair or improper pressure being put on members of political parties other than the one that trade union officials prefer. We have a great deal of sympathy with the concerns behind the amendments tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Lester. The expulsion of a member should be allowable only if it is undertaken fairly under the trade union’s rules. Due concern should be given to the adverse consequences of such an expulsion. As the amendment in the name of my noble friend Lady Perry highlights, membership of a trade union can bring significant financial support in the form of health insurance, paid positions and so on. Our Amendments Nos. 33, 35 and 37 highlight two concerns, the first of which is that only membership of registered political parties is considered excludable. There are many political organisations and pressure groups, membership of which should continue to be exempt. Secondly, we strongly object to the idea that former membership should be held against a trade union member; that smacks of retrospective punishment. Even if the resignation from an objectionable political party was recent, such a resignation shows that the membership of the trade union was more important to the person concerned than membership of the political party. Who is to decide whether a member’s resignation was fair?