Employment Bill [Lords]

The problem is that the current system encourages the rush to litigation. It undermines normal industrial relations as we have experienced them in the past and frustrates individual trade members, who feel that their internal democracy is being undermined. It also frustrates several managers on the ground, whose wishes have been overridden as a result of senior management decisions, after conferring with lawyers, to resort to legal action. The National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers had a similar case. It balloted employees of Southeastern Trains and the result was a 72 per cent. majority in support of strike action. Three days before the action was due to commence, Southeastern Trains announced that it sought an injunction against the union on the basis that the ballot was invalid because the union had not included four drivers. The union then balloted those four drivers, but it was argued that that was too late. Four votes either way would have made no difference whatever to the decision to undertake industrial action, but that action was prevented, as was, in my view, the speeding up of negotiations to resolve the dispute. There is example after example of where the Government's genuine wish to reform the balloting procedures and enable us to return to a decent industrial relations climate and re-establish basic trade union rights in this country have been frustrated because we did not go far enough in 1999 or 2004.