Social partners move closer on trade union recognition

In the run-up to the publication in May 1998 of the UK Government's White Paper on "fairness at work", the debate continued over the precise rules which should be introduced on statutory trade union recognition.

Over recent months, there has been considerable controversy over the Labour Government's plans, contained in its May 1997 election manifesto, to oblige employers to recognise a trade union where this is supported in a ballot by employees. The Government's White Paper on "fairness at work", which will deal with the recognition issue, among other matters, is now expected in May 1998. The Trades Union Congress (TUC) and the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) published a joint statement on recognition in December 1997, identifying areas of both agreement and disagreement (UK9801194F), but debate subsequently concentrated on the the latter (UK9802105N). In March 1998, several important trade union leaders - unhappy with the Government's perceived position - called for a special TUC conference to discuss the recognition issue (UK9803113N).

At the beginning of April 1998, after ruling out the calls for a special conference, John Monks, the TUC general secretary, said that good progress was being made after a union delegation met with the President of the Board of Trade (the trade and industry minister) and the Minister of State responsible. He said that "some issues that looked as if they might be difficult, now seem to have been resolved," while other issues were to be discussed at a further meeting. Two areas which were indicated as being problematic were:

• small firms. The CBI wants firms with fewer than 50 employees to be excluded from the scope of the legislation. The TUC states that small firms are important to the economy, but that some of the worst employment conditions are to be found in such businesses; and

• determining a majority in recognition ballots. While the TUC wants to define a majority as a majority of those voting, the CBI wants to define it as a majority of those eligible to vote. A "third way" which has been mooted is based on minimum turnouts - ie, a simple majority in the ballot would be sufficient, as long as a minimum proportion of the workforce voted. The unions see a problem with this concept, in that if there were a minimum turnout requirement of 40% and, out of a workforce of 1,000 employees, there were 350 votes in a ballot in favour of recognition and 20 against, the recognition claim would fail (because the turnout was below 40%). If, however, in the same-size workforce there were 350 votes in favour and 200 against, the recognition claim would succeed. The unions argue that this would be illogical.

With the publication of the White Paper drawing ever nearer, the stalemate seemed to have been broken to some extent when Adair Turner, director general of the CBI, stated that he shared the view of the TUC that the test of the validity of any vote should be based on a threshold of those voting in favour, rather than a threshold of votes cast. This was followed by a TUC announcement, after a general council meeting on 20 April, that it did not think the "third way" was necessary but that, in order to ensure a basis for sustainable collective bargaining, there could be a case for a minimum "yes" vote threshold: "the general council agreed today to indicate a readiness to accept a threshold rather than get hung up on hypothetical points and to help to reach a positive early conclusion." The TUC has also made concessions over the definition of small firms.

If the social partners are coming closer to reaching an agreement, then this might spare the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, a substantial problem, as he is thought to favour the CBI's interpretation but cannot afford to upset the unions over an issue which is of such importance to them. The unions take solace from the fact that a recent poll of senior human resource directors in Britain's top 100 firms reveals that they do not see a new recognition law as having an adverse impact on their business.