§ 6. Mr. Wayne David (Caerphilly)What action she is taking to ensure greater rights to consultation in the workplace. [136679]
§ The Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (Ms Patricia Hewitt)The information and consultation directive which comes into force in March 2005 will give new rights to employees to consultation about matters that affect them in the workplace.
§ Mr. DavidDoes my right hon. Friend agree that it would make a great deal of sense if companies did not wait for the deadline of 2005, and if companies and trade unions co-operated—like Tesco and Asda, for example—to ensure that there is effective consultation long before 2005?
§ Ms HewittI entirely agree with my hon. Friend and I am delighted to say that we have already been working closely with both the CBI and the TUC. I pay tribute to Digby Jones and Brendan Barber for the work that they have done in agreeing a framework for implementation. Now that that is in place, well in advance of the directive coming into effect, I hope that many more businesses 921 will take advantage of the opportunity to create an effective partnership with their work force and its representatives.
§ Mr. Tim Yeo (South Suffolk)Given that Britain faces more acute competition—[Interruption.] I shall take three minutes over this question. Given that Britain faces more acute competition internationally for both investment and jobs, will the Secretary of State undertake, whenever additional obligations are placed on British employers, to carry out an assessment of the likely impact of those obligations, regardless of how desirable or well-intended they may be, on the job prospects over the next 10 years of less-skilled workers?
§ Ms HewittI am delighted that the hon. Gentleman is in favour of competition, if not for the leadership of his own party. He raises a serious matter—the impact upon the least-skilled workers in our community of the enormous process of restructuring that is taking place not just in the United Kingdom and Europe, but right across the world. It is therefore central to our skills strategy, to the work that we are doing in the regional development agencies—which I think the Opposition intend to abolish—and to the work that we are doing in the most disadvantaged areas that we help those low-skilled workers, who are most vulnerable to displacement in the global economy, to get the skills and the jobs that they need. I remind the hon. Gentleman that despite all those global changes, we have 1.5 million more people in work than we had six years ago.