UNITE is prepared to accept the Tories’ plans for thresholds for industrial action ballots.
The union said in a statement yesterday: ‘The prime minister has been challenged to accept a ‘measure of agreement’ over controversial proposals to introduce punishing thresholds for industrial action ballots.
‘The offer – secret, secure workplace voting in return for the acceptance of ballot thresholds, a core plank of the Conservative’s trade union bill – comes from Len McCluskey, leader of Unite, the UK’s biggest union. Writing to the prime minister, Unite’s leader called upon him to adopt the existing, successful system of recognition ballots – in place and effective since 2000 – as the solution to voting his thresholds concerns.
‘The union has said that with opposition to the trade union bill growing and already spanning the police to HR professionals, and even Conservative MPs, the government is failing to make a sensible case for the new laws and instead is in increasing danger of being seen to be mounting little more than an ideological attack on unions.
‘Imposing new ballot thresholds without modernised voting procedures adds to this perception says Unite; they are regarded as a deliberate effort to trip unions into a situation whereby they cannot deliver a lawful ballot.
‘However, by adapting the system of safe workplace ballots already in place for union recognition so that they embrace industrial action ballots too, the prime minister could prove that his genuine concern is to improve workplace democracy, an objective Unite shares.
‘In their fifteen years of existence, dozens of safe, secure recognition ballots have been run at workplaces across the country. No ballot ever produced a turnout below 50 per cent; most were above 90 per cent. There has not been one case of fraud or abuse, thus dealing with the claims made by the business secretary that modern ballots are unsafe.’
In his letter to the prime minister, Len McCluskey says: ‘I am aware that government ministers and you yourself have justified the introduction of this measure by reference to concerns over low turnouts in some ballots leading to strike action.
‘No-one, of course, can be happy when strike action takes place – especially in services on which the public depend – on the basis of the active endorsement of only a minority of trade union members affected. In my long experience of industrial relations, mainly in the private sector, such strikes are a rarity.
‘Nevertheless, since I assume you are sincere about the concerns you raise about turnout, I would ask you to give urgent consideration to amending the Bill before parliament in order to permit the introduction of more modern methods of balloting including online, digital and, most importantly, secure and secret balloting in the workplace.’
