Motion no: 16
Conference is opposed to the ongoing attacks by the Westminster Government on a raft of anti-trade union legislation such as the Trade Union Bill and other employment laws. Conference welcomes that the NI Assembly have not sought to introduce these draconian laws and instead are proposing to retain aspects of local labour law that are less regressive than the GB legislation in relation to the qualifying period for unfair dismissal or reduction in the consultation period for collective redundancies.
Conference also welcomes in the initial statements from the Minister for Employment and Learning that he did not endorse nor recommend local application of the Tories’ 2015 Trade Union Bill. However, while these facts acknowledge no immediate political rush to make things worse, they also show the unsurprising failure to look to a broader framework of employment law that would empower the voice of a key element in the workplace – the trade union movement. The reason for this approach may be a lack of imagination or objectively (as suggested by the failure to ban exclusivity clauses in zero hours contracts) an ideological choice. Whatever the motivation, the labour movement locally cannot let its consequences go unchallenged.
Conference therefore calls on the Northern Ireland Committee to seek to build a campaign that does not merely accept that it is sufficient that employment laws do not merely get worse, but to proactively campaign for the creation of employment legislation that re-empowers and gives a stronger voice to the fight for economic justice and democratic accountability that the trade union movement can offer.
