§ [Nos. 11 and 12]
§ Clause 23, page 20, line 10, at end insert ("or of an interruption in the supply of fuel and power which is beyond the control of the employer")
§ The Commons disagreed to this Amendment for the following Reason:—
§ Because a primary objective of the provision of guarantee payments is that workers laid off through circumstances beyond their control should receive a payment.
§ 3.42 p.m.
§ Lord JACQUESMy Lords, I beg to move that this House doth not insist on their Amendment No. 11, to which the Commons have disagreed for the Reason numbered 12. The effect of the Amendment was to disqualify the right of an employee to guarantee payments where lay-offs result from a breakdown in the supply of fuel or power for reasons beyond the employer's control. In moving the Amendment, the noble Earl, Lord Gowrie, said that its purpose was to ensure that employers who, due to lack of fuel or power as a result of industrial 881 action in the public sector, are unable to provide work, should not have to make guarantee payments to their workpeople.
However, quite clearly, the Amendment has much wider ramifications. It would have the effect of disqualifying the right of an employee to guarantee payments where fuel or power supplies were interrupted for reasons totally unconnected with public sector disputes; for example, those caused by floods, non-delivery of fuel supplies, voltage reductions in bad weather and, indeed, the failure of the private sector of the oil industry to distribute supplies. The Government feel that by providing for disqualification where the lay-off of an employee arises from a dispute involving other employees of his employer or of an associated employer, they have struck the right balance and do not need to go further.
There is a further reason for our disagreement with this Amendment. The guarantee payments scheme embodies an important principle which we believe is fundamental to the fair and just treatment of all workers. That principle concerns the progressive removal of disparities between groups of workers by legislating to help those who are less advantaged to enjoy some of the benefits a ready enjoyed by many of their colleagues. This Amendment was not acceptable to the other place, who disposed of it without a Division. I urge your Lordships not to insist on this Amendment.
§ Moved, That this House doth not insist on their Amendment No. 11 to which the Commons have disagreed for the Reason numbered 12.—(Lord Jacques.)
§ On Question, Motion agreed to.