Bill Morris demands Government action for workers rights
T&G leader Sir Bill Morris has laid out several Government challenges for workers rights in a speech to the TUC conference today.
The Transport and General Workers’ Union leader called on the Government to go further than it has for workers, suggesting that they establish protection suitable for a 21st century labour market. He also issued several specific demands that the Unions should campaign on and that the Government should act on.
A significant grievance outlined in his speech was that strike rules that allow bosses to sack workers after eight weeks of legal strikes. He also raised a specific case involving 86 workers that were found to have been wrongly dismissed, but who have no means by which they can reclaim their jobs.
The Union Leader also argued that workers should be better informed of major decisions made by their companies. He criticised the direction some firms have taken which means workers find out about their redundancy through the news.
One issue that Sir Bill Morris had previously raised, and where he claimed the Government must act is a loophole in insolvency law that is sometimes abused by employers.
The loophole in the law means that some bosses declare their firm bankrupt after sacking their staff, and then buy the assets to start trading again. This means that the staff of the previous company has no claim to any form of compensation.
Mr Morris is one of the country’s most influential trade union leaders, and his calls for Government action are likely to be echoed by other leaders throughout the conference.
Trade unions hope that their financial ties to the Labour Party can be used to gain them greater influence over the coming years, especially now that the Government is looking to regain their electoral advantage.
Union leaders are also likely to pour scorn on the Confederation of British Industry as Sir Bill Morris did in a recent newspaper article. Their criticism of new employment rights will come under fire and attention is likely to be paid to the recent damage to workers pensions but not their bosses’.
A recent survey by the TUC released last week found that whilst employees have had their generous final salary schemes closed down 70.5% of directors at 121 of the UK’s biggest firms still enjoy the benefit with a pension on average 27 times larger than that of the average employee’s.
