Has Stormont really thought through its Good Jobs Bill? |
WHAT if Stormont’s Good Jobs Bill is a bigger issue for the public sector than for the private sector?
In an open letter this week, 22 business groups have asked the Executive not to rush the Bill through before the next election.
They reiterated that they support much of the proposed legislation, being brought by Sinn Féin minister Caoimhe Archibald.
Although a text of the new law has yet to published, business groups have largely accepted what it is believed to contain on zero hours contracts, flexible working, sick pay, tips, protection from unfair dismissal and other headline items.
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However, they want more thought put into the additional costs it will impose as they struggle with rising prices and taxes.
Youth unemployment, derelict high streets and the accelerating failure of hospitality businesses show these concerns are reasonable, even if they turn out to be unwarranted.
Business groups are most concerned about an aspect of the Bill known as Voice and Representation, which aims to reduce barriers to trade union activity.
The proposal that has caused most alarm is to give unions a right to request access to workplaces where they are not currently represented, so they can try to recruit members.
This would include physical access to buildings, plus digital access to send company-wide emails or display messages on internal monitors.
Requests can only be refused under a statutory code of conduct that will be drawn up and enforced by the Labour Relations Agency.
The Bill will also reduce the minimum size of a business that must recognise a union when asked, from 21 employees to 10.
Hints have been dropped from Stormont and elsewhere that this is nothing for businesses to worry about.
Most small firms have fewer than 10 staff and most large firms have union representatives on the premises already.
Unions do not have the resources to start barging into every other firm.
The Labour Relations Agency does not have the capacity to overturn a deluge of refusals – judging by its current caseload, it might be able to adjudicate a dozen complaints a year.
The implication is that the Bill’s proposal is merely for employees already interested in joining a union, so they can invite a representative into the workplace to speak to them.
As reassurances go this is unnervingly casual, like announcing the police can walk into every house, then telling people not to worry because the PSNI is short of officers.
If access is a minor matter, trade union lobbying and enthusiasm for the Bill must be doubly focused on its other Voice and Representation provisions, around half of which are about making it easier to strike.
Under these provisions, ballots could take place online rather than by post, employers would no longer need to be notified about the number of staff balloted and expected to strike, and a vote for industrial action would be valid for 12 months rather than four weeks.
Members of the British Medical Association on the picket line (Andrew Matthews/PA)Business groups seem relatively relaxed about these proposals. Strikes are unusual in private firms, especially smaller firms, partly because neither side wants to damage the business.
A separate proposal in the Bill for information and consultation agreements between staff and employers might even reduce strikes.
It is a different story in the public sector, where trade unions hold most of their power and direct most of their political attention.
There are few, if any, public sector workplaces in Northern Ireland not already covered by union representation. Most also have information and consultation agreements.
The Bill’s main impact in these workplaces will be to increase the risk, threat and incidence of strikes.
Stormont is picking quite a moment to hand the unions more power.
The Executive overspent its budget by £400 million last year and is projected to do so by £1 billion this year, mainly due to unfunded public sector pay awards.
Ministers are frightened of strikes if they say no. They have been able to make some cuts to find the cash for higher pay, but ministers are also frightened of the union reaction if they attempt the major reforms necessary to make public services properly sustainable.
While this is hardly a unique Stormont failing, other governments can borrow and raise taxes to pay for public sector bloat.
Stormont has little ability to do either, so now it is effectively bankrupting itself in a desperate effort to keep the show on the road.
Has Sinn Féin considered what it would mean for every Executive party if unions could ballot for strike action, then hold that over a minister’s head for 12 months of pay negotiations, many of which are held annually?
It is not just businesses who need to hope this legislation is not rushed.
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