§ Lords Amendment: No. 115, in page 45, line 29, after ("of") insert ("all the stages of").
§ Mr. Dudley SmithI beg to move, That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said Amendment.
§ This Amendment was moved in another place by the official Opposition and accepted by the Government. The intention of the Clause is that the employer's obligation to disclose information should start at the stage when management and unions get together to discuss definite proposals for a change in the terms and conditions of employment or a procedure agreement, but not before then. The requirement to disclose information is, therefore, limited by subsection (1) to the circumstances of collective bargaining between the employer's and trade union's representatives.
§
Moreover, collective bargaining is defined in Clause 158(1) as meaning
negotiations with respect to terms and conditions of employment, or with respect to the making, variation or rescission of a procedure agreement, or with respect to any matter to which in accordance with this section a procedure agreement can relate".
This precise definition is needed because the Industrial Court will have to pay regard to it when failure to comply with Clause 54 results in complaints under Clause 98.
§ It was always the Government's intention that the employer's obligation to disclose information should exist at all stages of collective bargaining, as defined. Indeed, we were confident that that would be the case under the Clause as drafted; but to put the matter entirely beyond doubt we are happy to recommend the House to accept the Amendment.
§ Question put and agreed to.
1678§ Lords Amendment: No. 116, in page 46, line 6, after "be" insert "or be confirmed".
§ Mr. Dudley SmithI beg to move, That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said Amendment.
Perhaps it would be convenient to discuss at the same time Amendment No. 117, in page 46, line 10, at end insert "or confirming".
§ Mr. Harold WalkerWe have no objection to that course.
§ Mr. Dudley SmithThis Amendment concerns the situation when a union has received information orally from an employer but at some later stage in the same round of collective bargaining decides that it requires that information in writing. In this situation it would be anomalous to deny the union the right to written information which it could have received previously, had it wished, and the Amendment would write the union's entitlement into the Bill, which we believe is a desirable thing to do.
This right will extend only to information which the employer is obliged to disclose under Clause 54 and will not cover additional confidential information which the employer might disclose as an earnest of trust and good faith.
§ Amendment No. 117 is purely consequential on Amendment No. 116 being accepted.
§ Question put and agreed to.
§ Subsequent Lords Amendment agreed to.