Employment Bill [Lords]

This Government have so far introduced some 18 Acts and more than 280 statutory instruments dealing directly with employment laws and regulations, and we are now debating another one. Their continual tinkering with employee rights and employer duties has left business and individuals confused. The Bill was originally called the employment simplification Bill, so the change was fully justified given that it involves no simplification whatsoever. It is hardly surprising that if one reviews the figures for employment tribunal cases, it is clear that small businesses make up the overwhelming majority of respondents. Many small businesses are no more sophisticated than the employees claiming against them. They do not have the large human resources departments or teams of lawyers that are needed to decipher the tangled web of employment laws that the Government continue to create. Even while the Bill has been making its way through the House, a further, under-the-table deal was done between Labour and the trade unions to tamper with the laws on agency workers in a way that could be very damaging for our already over-burdened businesses. While that is hardly surprising from a Government who are almost entirely funded by the trade unions, it has got to a point where even the ex-Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform seems to have recognised that the Government have gone too far. Prior to his promotion, he admitted that there was a"““need to challenge the automatic assumption that the only way to deal with exploitation in the workplace is by passing new laws.””" I hope for the sake of employers across the country that Lord Mandelson has read his handover brief thoroughly, not least because, given the Labour amendments tabled, it looks as if we will need to prepare for a union legislative onslaught as the TUC calls in its Warwick II promises. Just to recap: we heard proposals today to protect employees taking industrial action from dismissal; to prevent trade unions from being sued by employers suffering loss as a consequence of industrial action; to provide union members with a dual award—damages and reinstatement—where they are dismissed for striking; to shift the responsibility for ensuring ballots are properly conducted from unions to employers; to prevent businesses using so-called strike breakers; to provide special privileges not to work for so-called union workplace environmental reps; and to abolish all restrictions on trade unions' rights to expel or exclude members—