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 William Whitelaw Mr William Whitelaw , Penrith and The Border 12:00, 4 Rhagfyr 1973

I am grateful to the right hon. Member for East Ham, North (Mr. Prentice) for his very kind welcoming remarks. He is right to say that together many years ago we debated similar Acts which I believe have gained considerable acceptance in the industrial affairs of our country. I have in mind the Industrial Training Act, the Offices, Shops and Railway Premises Act and the Contracts of Employment Act. There were differences on all of them, but over the years they have been seen to have made their contribution.

I understand that the hon. Member for Salford, West (Mr. Orme) is to wind up the debate. Nothing that he says about me in my new rôle will take away from my gratitude to him for what he said and did and the help that he gave me in my old rôle. But I quite understand that we are in a different place today.

I have no doubt about the gravity of the task which faces me. We are embarking upon a straight party political confrontation. That in itself is fair enough. Sometimes this House serves the nation well by bringing out and arguing all the conflicting views. But there are other occasions when a united House of Commons stands up for the interests of the nation as a whole. Sometimes in the past Ministers of all parties holding my appointment have received that backing, and often it has been in the interests of the nation as a whole that they should. But that is not for today. Today we are debating basically the Industrial Relations Act, on particular aspects of which the right hon. Gentleman laid great stress.

The right hon. Gentleman asked me for some cogent replies, and it is right that I should put before the House as I understand them the issues which divide the Government and the Opposition in what is undoubtedly a key area of social policy.

This debate also gives us the opportunity to remember and to reiterate the principles upon which the Act is founded and to test anew whether it can be held that these principles are wrongly based or that the law itself has no place in providing a surer basis for the conduct of industrial relations in the interests of the community as a whole, including trade unions and their members. Above all the debate gives us an opportunity to look at the facts about this Act and perhaps to demolish some of the myths.

I think that it is commonly agreed throughout the House that this Government came to office at a time when there was a widespread demand in the country for an effective reform of industrial relations. There were widely evident situations in many industries where the energies of both managements and trade union leaders were being dissipated unnecessarily in almost ceaseless conflict, with the community often the shuttlecock, not only in the short term, but in the longer term, because of the self-inflicted economic damage.

The Opposition, when in Government, had made no different analysis of the situation—this must be accepted by Opposition Members—until they were dissuaded from taking action by pressures from within the trade union movement. They had seen no other alternative before that but to try to establish a rudimentary framework of law. There was clearly a desire on their part to provide for a greater certainty in the conduct of industrial releations in the interest of the community as a whole.

When the Government came into power, the need, as we saw it in a growingly complex and inter-related industrial society, was to provide for a surer framework of conduct strengthened by a clearer concept of mutual and inter-dependent freedom and obligation of a kind already established in many other countries.

It must be right in the context of the debate again to set out clearly what the Act does, and some of the things which it has achieved. I remind the right hon. Gentleman that the motion calls for the total repeal of the Act. That is the motion which we are debating, and it must be looked at in that context.