Employment Bill [Lords]

With this it will be convenient to discuss the following: New clause 2— Employer’s duties in relation to industrial action ballots— ““The following section is inserted after section 226C of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992— ““226D Employer’s duties in relation to industrial action ballots (1) It is the duty of an employer reasonably to co-operate generally, in connection with a ballot conducted or proposed for the purposes of section 226, with the trade union (or unions) and the person appointed to conduct the ballot. (2) Without prejudice to the generality of subsection (1), it is the duty of an employer to supply to a trade union in good time information reasonably requested by the trade union for the purposes of establishing the names, addresses, categories and workplaces of those members whom it wishes to ballot for the purposes of section 226.””.’. New clause 3— Agency labour replacing those taking lawful industrial action— ““In the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003 (S.I. 2003/3319), after regulation 7 (restriction on providing work-seekers in industrial disputes) insert the following regulation— ““Restriction on hirers in industrial disputes 7A (1) A person shall not hire a work-seeker to perform— (a) the duties normally performed by a worker who is taking part, or intends to or is about to take part, in a lawful strike or other lawful industrial action, and in respect of whom notice of a strike or other industrial action has been given by a trade union (““the first worker””), or (b) the duties normally performed by any other worker employed by the hirer and who is assigned by the hirer to perform duties normally performed by the first worker (whether or not the employer is contractually entitled to require the other worker to perform those duties). (2) Where a person seeks to become the hirer of a work-seeker wholly or partly by reason of (or of the prospect of) a strike or other industrial action, that person shall, before being supplied with a work-seeker by an employment business, inform the employment business of that fact. (3) Paragraphs (1) and (2) shall not apply if, in relation to the first worker, the strike action or other industrial action in question is an unofficial strike or other unofficial industrial action for the purposes of section 237 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992. (4) In this regulation and in regulation 7, ““employment business”” includes an agency.””.’.