§ 8. Mr. Parkasked the Secretary of State for Employment how many trade union recognition issues ACAS is currently dealing with under the provisions of the Employment Protection Act.
§ Mr. Harold WalkerI am informed by ACAS that at the end of October the Service was dealing with 307 recognition issues referred under Section 11 of the Employment Protection Act.
§ Mr. ParkI thank my hon. Friend for that reply. Can he say in how many cases the outcome was recognition of the union, and does he agree that in the recent case of Grunwick Processing it would have been much more sensible to use this valuable process rather than allow the situation to fester as it did?
§ Mr. WalkerThe reply to the first part of my hon. Friend's question is that approximately two-thirds of the settlements involved recognition of the union. In the others, the unions' claims for recognition were withdrawn. I wholly agree with my hon. Friend about the ugly Grunwick situation, much of which might have been avoided had the firm responded much earlier to the union's suggestion of the use of the Section 11 procedures under the Employment Protection Act.