Agenda item

As a major employer in the local area, this Council welcomes the positive benefits that arise from the relationship that we have with recognised Trade Unions. This Council believes that the relationship between employers and their employees through their collective representatives would be damaged by reducing facility time for elected representatives and by removing the ability of union members to pay union dues direct from their wages.

 

This Council believes that the Trade Union bill, far from assisting employer-employee relations or improving workplace democracy, is an ideologically driven attack on the fundamental rights and freedoms of workers to organise or take strike action. lt is also deliberately designed to dramatically reduce funding to the main Party in opposition to the Government, and as such is a threat to our democracy.

 

The Council notes that the Bill and secondary legislation will:

·  Allow agency labour to be used to substitute for striking workers, currently outlawed, which would be deeply divisive and with agency workers often doing unfamiliar jobs, could pose a serious health and safety risk to themselves and others

·  lntroduce very high thresholds for industrial ballots, with an extra threshold in certain public services, without doing anything to improve the ability of workers to participate in ballots

·  Severely restrict the right to picket and peacefully protest including organising campaigns through social media

·  Significantly reduce Trade Union facility time and withdraw check-off union contributions in the public sector, irrespective of the wishes of the employer

·  Require union members to 'contract in'to their union's Political Fund every 5 years, thereby significantly reducing the ability of Trade Unions either to campaign on political issues or to support political parties.

 

This Council commits to promote the positive role that Trade Unions bring to society and therefore calls on the Government to scrap the Trade Union Bill and all associated regulation/secondary legislation.

 

Should the Trade Union Bill receive Royal Assent enabling the legislation to come into effect, Council requests that Executive Board receive a report on the implications of the Bill for Leeds City Council, its employees, Trade Unions and the effect on maintaining positive industrial relations.

 

Prior to the debate on the motion and following a request from a Member the City Solicitor provided guidance to Council on the issue of the registration and disclosure of potential Interests in the matter being discussed. 

 

It was moved by Councillor Blake, seconded by Councillor Heselwood that as a major employer in the local area, this Council welcomes the positive benefits that arise from the relationship that we have with recognised Trade Unions. This Council believes that the relationship between employers and their employees through their collective representatives would be damaged by reducing facility time for elected representatives and by removing the ability of union members to pay union dues direct from their wages.

 

This Council believes that the Trade Union bill, far from assisting employer-employee relations or improving workplace democracy, is an ideologically driven attack on the fundamental rights and freedoms of workers to organise or take strike action. lt is also deliberately designed to dramatically reduce funding to the main Party in opposition to the Government, and as such is a threat to our democracy.

 

The Council notes that the Bill and secondary legislation will:

• Allow agency labour to be used to substitute for striking workers, currently outlawed, which would be deeply divisive and with agency workers often doing unfamiliar jobs, could pose a serious health and safety risk to themselves and others
• lntroduce very high thresholds for industrial ballots, with an extra threshold in certain public services, without doing anything to improve the ability of workers to participate in ballots
• Severely restrict the right to picket and peacefully protest including organising campaigns through social media
• Significantly reduce Trade Union facility time and withdraw check-off union contributions in the public sector, irrespective of the wishes of the employer
• Require union members to 'contract in' to their union's Political Fund every 5 years, thereby significantly reducing the ability of Trade Unions either to campaign on political issues or to support political parties.

 

This Council commits to promote the positive role that Trade Unions bring to society and therefore calls on the Government to scrap the Trade Union Bill and all associated regulation/secondary legislation.

 

Should the Trade Union Bill receive Royal Assent enabling the legislation to come into effect, Council requests that Executive Board receive a report on the implications of the Bill for Leeds City Council, its employees, Trade Unions and the effect on maintaining positive industrial relations.

 

An amendment was moved by Councillor A Blackburn seconded by Councillor Wilford.

 

To delete the last sentence of the second paragraph,

 

i.e. delete:  “lt is also deliberately designed to dramatically reduce funding to the main Party in opposition to the Government, and as such is a threat to our democracy..”

 

The rest of the text remains unchanged.

 

A second amendment was moved by Councillor J Bentley seconded by Councillor Cleasby

 

Remove all except paragraph 4.

 

Replace “commits to promote” in paragraph 4 with “acknowledges”.

 

Add the following to the end of the motion:

 

“This council believes that our democracy is distorted by the large sums of money donated to political parties by a very small number of individuals, businesses and trade unions and that the entire system of party funding is in urgent need of fundamental reform.”

 

A third amendment was moved by Councillor Lamb seconded by Councillor J Procter

 

Delete Paragraph 1. In Paragraph 2 delete all after ‘This Council’ and replace with:

 

‘believes that the Trade Union Bill delivers overdue reform of Trade Unions and the relationship between them and public sector organisations. The positive impacts of the bill are clear:

 

·  Giving trade union members the right to opt in to pay political contributions

·  Reduced intimidation of non-striking workers

·  Deliver savings to the public purse

·  A reduction in disruption to hard working families caused by strikes based on out dated ballots with less than 30% of Trade Union Membership support

·  Increase the notice period for strike action, giving employers more time to prepare contingency plans and reduce disruption for the public

Council recognises the valuable role that TUs play in a variety of organisations and the role they play in Leeds, but notes TUs involvement in political campaigning, largely for one party, and that TUs should therefore be funded entirely by subscriptions from their members.

 

Council calls on the Chief Executive to write to the Department for Business, Innovation & Skillssetting out the Council’s support for the reforms in the Bill.

 

Council further calls for an end to Leeds City Council subsidy of Trade Unions.’

 

Motion will read:

 

‘This Council believes that the Trade Union Bill delivers overdue reform of Trade Unions and the relationship between them and public sector organisations. The positive impacts of the bill are clear:

 

·  Giving trade union members the right to opt in to pay political contributions

·  Reduced intimidation of non-striking workers

·  Deliver savings to the public purse

·  A reduction in disruption to hard working families caused by strikes based on out dated ballots with less than 30% of Trade Union Membership support

·  Increase the notice period for strike action, giving employers more time to prepare contingency plans and reduce disruption for the public

Council recognises the valuable role that TUs play in a variety of organisations and the role they play in Leeds, but notes TUs involvement in political campaigning, largely for one party, and that TUs should therefore be funded entirely by subscriptions from their members.

 

Council calls on the Chief Executive to write to the Department for Business, Innovation & Skillssetting out the Council’s support for the reforms in the Bill.

 

Council further calls for an end to Leeds City Council subsidy of Trade Unions.’

 

The amendments in the name of Councillors A Blackburn, J Bentley and Lamb were declared lost and upon being put to the vote it was

 

RESOLVED – That as a major employer in the local area, this Council welcomes the positive benefits that arise from the relationship that we have with recognised Trade Unions. This Council believes that the relationship between employers and their employees through their collective representatives would be damaged by reducing facility time for elected representatives and by removing the ability of union members to pay union dues direct from their wages.

 

This Council believes that the Trade Union bill, far from assisting employer-employee relations or improving workplace democracy, is an ideologically driven attack on the fundamental rights and freedoms of workers to organise or take strike action. lt is also deliberately designed to dramatically reduce funding to the main Party in opposition to the Government, and as such is a threat to our democracy.

 

The Council notes that the Bill and secondary legislation will:

• Allow agency labour to be used to substitute for striking workers, currently outlawed, which would be deeply divisive and with agency workers often doing unfamiliar jobs, could pose a serious health and safety risk to themselves and others
• lntroduce very high thresholds for industrial ballots, with an extra threshold in certain public services, without doing anything to improve the ability of workers to participate in ballots
• Severely restrict the right to picket and peacefully protest including organising campaigns through social media
• Significantly reduce Trade Union facility time and withdraw check-off union contributions in the public sector, irrespective of the wishes of the employer
• Require union members to 'contract in' to their union's Political Fund every 5 years, thereby significantly reducing the ability of Trade Unions either to campaign on political issues or to support political parties.

 

This Council commits to promote the positive role that Trade Unions bring to society and therefore calls on the Government to scrap the Trade Union Bill and all associated regulation/secondary legislation.

 

Should the Trade Union Bill receive Royal Assent enabling the legislation to come into effect, Council requests that Executive Board receive a report on the implications of the Bill for Leeds City Council, its employees, Trade Unions and the effect on maintaining positive industrial relations.

 

On the requisition of Councillors G Latty and Lamb, the voting on all amendments and the motion were recorded as follows;

 

 

Voting on the amendment in the name of Councillor A Blackburn was recorded as follows;

 

YES – 2

 

A Blackburn and Wilford

 

No - 74

 

Akhtar, B Anderson, C Anderson, J Bentley, S Bentley, Blake, Bruce, Buckley, Campbell, Amanda Carter, Andrew Carter, Castle, Charlwood, Cleasby , Congreve, Coulson, Coupar, Dawson, C Dobson, M Dobson, Dowson , Flynn, Gabriel, Golton , P Grahame, , C Gruen,  P Gruen, Groves, Hamilton, Harington, Harland, Harper, Harrand , Hayden, Heselwood,  G Hussain, Hyde, Illingworth, Jarosz, A Khan, Lamb, G Latty, P Latty, J Lewis, R Lewis, Lowe, Lyons, Macniven, Maqsood, J McKenna, S McKenna, Mulherin, Nagle, Nash, Ogilvie, J Procter, Pryor, Rafique, Renshaw, Ritchie, Robinson, Selby, Smart, Sobel, E Taylor, Urry, Venner, Wadsworth, Walker, Walshaw, Wakefield, Wilkinson , Wood and Yeadon. 

 

ABSTAIN - 3

 

R Grahame, Finnigan and Leadley

 

 

Voting on the amendment in the name of Councillor J Bentley was recorded as follows;

 

YES –7

 

J Bentley, S Bentley, Campbell, Cleasby, Finnigan, Golton and Leadley

 

No - 71

 

Akhtar, B Anderson, C Anderson, A Blackburn, Blake, Bruce, Buckley, Amanda Carter, Andrew Carter, Castle, Charlwood, Congreve, Coulson, Coupar, Dawson, C Dobson, M Dobson, Dowson , Flynn, Gabriel, P Grahame, , C Gruen,  P Gruen, Groves, Hamilton, Harington, Harland, Harper, Harrand , Hayden, Heselwood,  G Hussain, Hyde, Illingworth, Jarosz, A Khan, Lamb, G Latty, P Latty, J Lewis, R Lewis, Lowe, Lyons, Macniven, Maqsood, J McKenna, S McKenna, Mulherin, Nagle, Nash, Ogilvie, J Procter, Pryor, Rafique, Renshaw, Ritchie, Robinson, Selby, Smart, Sobel, E Taylor, Urry, Venner, Wadsworth, Walker, Walshaw, Wakefield, Wilford, Wilkinson, Wood and Yeadon. 

 

ABSTAIN - 1

 

R Grahame

 

Voting on the amendment in the name of Councillor Lamb was recorded as follows;

 

YES –16

 

B Anderson, C Anderson, Buckley, Amanda Carter, Andrew Carter, Castle, Flynn, Harrand, Lamb, G Latty, P Latty, J Procter, Robinson, Wadsworth, Wilkinson and Wood.

 

No - 63

 

Akhtar,J Bentley, S Bentley, A Blackburn, Blake, Bruce, Campbell, Charlwood, Cleasby ,Congreve, Coulson, Coupar, Dawson, C Dobson, M Dobson, Dowson, Finnigan, Gabriel, Golton ,P Grahame, R Grahame, C Gruen,  P Gruen, Groves, Hamilton, Harington, Harland, Harper, Hayden, Heselwood,  G Hussain, Hyde, Illingworth, Jarosz, A Khan, Leadley , J Lewis, R Lewis, Lowe, Lyons, Macniven, Maqsood, J McKenna, S McKenna, Mulherin, Nagle, Nash, Ogilvie, Pryor, Rafique, Renshaw, Ritchie, Selby, Smart, Sobel, E Taylor, Urry, Venner, Walker, Walshaw, Wakefield, Wilford, and Yeadon. 

 

ABSTAIN - 0

 

 

 

Voting on the motion in the name of Councillor J Lewis

 

No –16

 

B Anderson, C Anderson, Buckley, Amanda Carter, Andrew Carter, Castle, Flynn, Harrand, Lamb, G Latty, P Latty, J Procter, Robinson, Wadsworth, Wilkinson and Wood.

 

Yes - 54

 

Akhtar, Blake, Bruce, Charlwood, Congreve, Coulson, Coupar, Dawson, C Dobson, M Dobson, Dowson, Gabriel, P Grahame, R Grahame, C Gruen,  P Gruen, Groves, Hamilton, Harington, Harland, Harper, Hayden, Heselwood,  G Hussain, Hyde, Illingworth, Jarosz, A Khan, J Lewis, R Lewis, Lowe, Lyons, Macniven, Maqsood, J McKenna, S McKenna, Mulherin, Nagle, Nash, Ogilvie, Pryor, Rafique, Renshaw, Ritchie, Selby, Smart, Sobel, E Taylor, Urry, Venner, Walker, Walshaw, Wakefield, and Yeadon. 

 

ABSTAIN - 4

 

A Blackburn, Finnigan, Leadley and Wilford