Give us legal power to block employers’ decisions, says union chief Mick Lynch
Unions must be given legal powers to block employers’ decisions, Mick Lynch has said.
The general secretary of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union told ministers that worker representatives should be able to seek injunctions against companies they believe are breaking the law.
Speaking to the Employment Rights Bill committee alongside business groups and other union leaders, Mr Lynch said: “We have got to have the power as trade unions, as representatives of the workers, to intervene where we know they’re [employers] breaking the law.
“They can injunct me personally, they can injunct my trade union, they can close us down for making clerical errors on ballots. And they will do it, if they get any chance.
“We get no power to injunct them on behalf of our members it seems, so I think that needs to be considered.”
Mr Lynch was giving evidence on the Employment Rights Bill, which hands significant new powers to workers and unions at the expense of companies. Despite this, the union boss argued the legislation did not go far enough.
He said the new Fair Work Agency, which will oversee the Government’s package of employment reforms, “should be at the level of injunction to stop these rogues getting away with it in the future”.
He highlighted P&O Ferries’ sudden mass sacking of 800 staff in 2022 as an example of a decision that unions would have sought to block had they had adequate protections.
Mr Lynch said: “We’d like to see the power for unions to get redress – injunctive power against people like P&O.
“We were told that if we took action against P&O we could be liable for all of their revenue loss for every day of their trading, which could have been up to £15-20m a day – that’s impossible for workers and their organisations to take forward.”
Ms Rayner has previously said her employment rights bill would “prevent another P&O Ferries scandal”, describing the ferry operator’s decision to replace 800 staff with lower paid agency workers as “outrageous”.
Sir Keir Starmer was forced to distance himself from comments made by Louise Haigh, the Transport Secretary, last month after she called P&O Ferries a “rogue operator,” prompting a row with its owner DP World over a £1bn port expansion.
Mr Lynch’s call for even greater union power comes despite business leaders warning about the cost and burden of Labour’s existing plans, which have been spearheaded by Ms Rayner, the Deputy Prime Minister.
The Regulatory Policy Committee (RPC), an independent body tasked with scrutinising whether policy decisions are based on accurate evidence, this week found that impact assessments of the bill were “not fit for purpose”.
The Government wants to allow unions to be able to bargain with employers even if just 2pc of staff are members. It also wants to ditch a 40pc turnout requirement for ballots, meaning unionised workers could go on strike even if less than half of members back action.
Jane Gratton, the deputy director for policy at the British Chambers of Commerce, told the committee that “making it easier for unions to call strike action doesn’t mean the union is representative of the workforce and it doesn’t improve the relationship with the employers”.
“From our members’ point of view, it simply makes it easier to reach an end point that nobody wants,” she said, adding: “We don’t think there should be any change to union access or ballot thresholds.”
Andrew Griffith, the shadow business secretary, warns Labour to rethink the workers’ rights overhaul – Yui Mok/PA
Andrew Griffith, the shadow business secretary, said: “Labour’s union paymasters are licking their lips at the prospect of these measures becoming the law.
“They will hand massive powers to the unions, making it easier for them to hold organisations and their consumers to ransom and take us back to the 1970s.
“Everyone will pay the price of these extreme laws through higher prices, more strikes and job losses. Labour must think again.”
Paul Nowak, the general secretary of the Trade Union Congress, told ministers it was “very likely” that Britain “will see increased unionisation as a result of the bill”.
Ministers were warned on Tuesday that the reforms could backfire and make companies less likely to take on new staff.
Alex Hall-Chen, the head of policy at the Institute of Directors, said companies would be much less likely to take a risk on a “borderline candidate” because the cost of getting a hire wrong would be far greater than it is now.
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