§ Hywel Williams (Caernarfon)This petition relates to the "eight week rule" whereby workers taking part in a legal strike are no longer protected by the law from dismissal after eight weeks. It arises from the recent dispute between Friction Dynamics Ltd of Caernarfon and members of the Transport and General Workers Union who were sacked after being on a legal strike for eight weeks and who are still awaiting the result of an industrial tribunal 18 months later. The petition has been signed by some 3,081 people, mainly from Caernarfon but also from Wales and the rest of the United Kingdom, who state:
Workers have a right not to suffer detriment as a result of taking legal industrial action and that this is not a qualified right and the UK Government should not make it so.The petitioners request therefore that the House of Commons urge the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry to introduce legislative proposals to amend the Employment Relations Act 1999 and remove the eight-week limit on protection for striking workers.And the petitioners remain etc.
§ To lie upon the Table.