HC Deb 24 March 1981 vol 1 c797
9. Mr. Knox

asked the Secretary of State for Employment when he plans to meet the director-general of the Confederation of British Industry to discuss the long-term improvement of industrial relations.

Mr. Prior

I have had a number of discussions with representatives of the Confederation of British Industry about the long-term improvement of industrial relations. I shall be addressing a CBI conference on the Green Paper on trade union immunities tomorrow.

Mr. Knox

When my right hon. Friend next meets the director-general, will he impress on him the importance of greater employee participation in the long-term improvement of industrial relations? Will he also impress upon him the danger of doing nothing?

Mr. Prior

Yes, Sir. The CBI and the director-general are well aware of the importance of bigger and better schemes for communication, information and involvement in matters that concern work forces in their places of work. I hope that the code of practice that the CBI has issued in conjunction with the Industrial Society and other organisations will be followed.

Mr. Maclennan

Although I recognise the importance of a long-term policy, may I ask whether the right hon. Gentleman accepts that the immediate need is to help industry? When he says that unemployment can best be solved by tackling the problem of over-payments, is he saying that he favours an incomes policy rather than the massive deflation that the Budget offers?

Mr. Prior

I do not think that that question has any relevance to the original question.

Mr. Haselhurst

Would it be helpful to have a system of monitoring voluntary progress towards the creation of satisfactory schemes for employee participation? Might not that encourage those companies that move rather slowly?

Mr. Prior

The CBI has a monitoring scheme. My Department is carrying out a survey, which I hope will be available later in the spring. I cannot stress too strongly that the maximum amount of importance should be attached to further schemes for involvement. When we come out of the recession, we shall need, above all, to communicate better with employees than we have done in recent years.

Mr. John Evans

Is it not time that the Secretary of State accepted that industrial relations involve both sides of industry and that they cannot be improved by repressive anti-trade union legislation?

Mr. Prior

No one is suggesting that industrial relations can be improved by repressive anti-trade union legislation. Nor is anyone suggesting that the law does not have an important part to play in the conduct of industrial relations. Those hon. Members who seem to think that the law should be concerned entirely with giving trade unions advantages that are not available to ordinary people need only consider what has happened in recent years to realise that the working people have done badly.