Employment Bill [Lords]

No; I hope that the Minister will give us the reason why he can accept it. I cannot see any reason why it should be rejected. We all have examples—I have mine—but the Royal Mail is a classic one. All the information was provided, but the totals of each grade of staff were not added up. All that was needed was a calculator, but on that basis an injunction was awarded to prevent the dispute. As my hon. Friend said, that was costly, and it soured relations between the union and management for a period. The Government recognised the problem, and they legislated in 1999 and 2004 to tackle the issue. They understood that the procedures undermined the democratic wishes of trade union members by preventing their implementation. I was pleased that the Government recognised that and introduced reforms. Experience has since shown that the reforms were not successful; we still have the same problems. The current laws require unions to provide the employer with exact numbers of members, categories of workers and the workplaces of those to be balloted, but still allow lawyers to apply for injunctions based on small technical errors, even where they have no effect on the outcome of the ballot. That cannot be just, and it cannot be right. The use of injunctions by lawyers is frustrating and undemocratic, especially when the error complained about could have no impact on the final result. It is extremely difficult in modern work life to keep trace of meticulous records of all members in a modern work force.