Employment Bill [Lords]

That is a good point. When Tony Woodley, who was general secretary of the T&G and is now joint general secretary of Unite, was the midlands organiser for the car industry, he consistently argued how much easier it was to sack workers in Britain, and therefore how much easier it was to relocate to other parts of Europe. The supervisory body of the United Nations international covenant on economic, social and cultural rights has told the Government on at least two occasions that in order to conform to their ratified obligations they need to protect the right to strike and to ensure that the dismissal of those on lawful strike is prevented and that any such dismissal must be rendered void and ineffective. The new clause would enable a form of compliance with this element of the Government's obligations and provide some protection from dismissal for workers taking lawful industrial action—those who, before taking industrial action, have complied with every procedure that the Government have obliged them to with regard to balloting, notices and so on. That brings me on to new clause 2 and balloting. The new clause attempts to resolve the ongoing administrative problems of balloting procedures for industrial action. Let us be clear about this: under the existing procedures, trade unions must, before conducting lawful industrial action, comply with extensive rules on notices and ballots. Anybody who has had practical experience of that process can demonstrate the difficulties of consciously complying with the law. It places a heavy administrative burden and costs on the unions.