Industrial Relations

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons am 12:00 am ar 4 Rhagfyr 1973.

Danfonwch hysbysiad imi am ddadleuon fel hyn

Photo of Mr Reginald Prentice Mr Reginald Prentice , East Ham North 12:00, 4 Rhagfyr 1973

I beg to move, That this House condemns Her Majesty's Government for the increasing damage being done to industrial relations and to the legitimate activities of trades unions by the Industrial Relations Act 1971 and the machinery for its enforcement which, following upon earlier instances of industrial disruption and harm to the economy, has now resulted in the sequestration and seizure of union funds subscribed for political purposes and a regrettable involvement of the National Industrial Relations Court in matters of political controversy ; and therefore calls for the total repeal of the Act. I begin by thanking you, Mr. Speaker, for the statement that you have made to the House. Any criticism I have to make of the judge will, I think, fall within the definition of "respectable, even though outspoken." That gives us a wide range for debate.

I would also like to welcome, and here I think I speak for the whole House, the new Secretary of State to this debate. He may find that debates on this subject get a bit rough and he may have a fairly early experience of such roughness. We all have a great deal of personal good will for him as he steps from one bed of nails to the other. I would add a personal note. He and I last faced one another on this subject in the months preceding the 1964 General Election when he was Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Labour and I was the assistant spokesman from the Labour benches on Ministry of Labour matters.

Then we managed to achieve what I could describe as a cheerful enmity. I would like to recapture that once again, but I say at once that it will be more difficult this time. It will be more difficult because of the different rôle which the Government see for the Department of Employment compared with the traditional rôle of the Ministry of Labour which still, by and large, held good under the Government in office until 1964.

In those days we had differences, there were criticisms and we divided on party lines on many matters affecting that Ministry, but, broadly speaking, in those days the Ministry was considered to be helpful to industrial relations throughout the community. It was helpful to both sides of industry in respect of industrial disputes and other matters. This is in stark contrast with the situation of the past three years. The right hon. Gentleman now inherits a Department that has had to operate according to entirely different rules. There have been three years of deliberate confrontation engineered by the Government, in which the Industrial Relations Act is the centre-piece.

The right hon. Gentleman has many friends and admirers in this House. I count myself as one of them. As such I say to him "For Heavens sake make it your first task to face your Cabinet colleagues with the urgent need for a change of course in industrial relations policy and especially with the need for the repeal, or at least the drastic amendment and modification, of the Industrial Relations Act."

The motion reiterates the demand made from these benches on many occasions. Some of the arguments which I hope to use, and those which my hon. Friends will be using, have been used before. But there is a new dimension to this debate and a new urgency about our demand for the repeal of the Act because of the recent events referred to in the motion, when we use the words : has now resulted in the sequestration and seizure of union funds subscribed for political purposes and a regrettable involvement of the National Industrial Relations Court in matters of political controversy". I beg hon. Member opposite, not only Ministers but all who take part in the debate, to face up to the serious nature of the issues posed by the motion. I hope, although it may be a forlorn hope, that they will not try to duck out of that argument by pretending that the debate is about something else. This debate is not about whether the Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers is right or wrong in its policy of refusing to recognise the Industrial Relations Court. In my view, it is wrong : in the view of some of my hon. Friends, it is right. There is a division of opinion on this which touches only marginally the central issue before the House.

Neither is this a debate on Motion No. 49, signed by a large number of my hon. Friends, calling for the dismissal of Sir John Donaldson. That is not for debate, although it may be referred to. Some of the material will overlap. I and many of my hon. Friends would not sign that motion for a number of reasons. We would not support it. We unanimously support the motion I have moved, and it is on that motion that we expect more constructive argument and more cogent replies from the Government than we have had in any of the series of debates on the Industrial Relations Act.