§ Mr. Snapeasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will refer to the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service, the dispute at the Birmingham Post and Evening Mail.
§ Mr. BoothMy right hon. Friend has no powers to refer a dispute to the independent Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service. However, I understand that the service is at present seeking to bring together the parties to this dispute.
536W
§ Mr. BoothNo. Under the provisions of the Employment Protection Bill every award of compensation for unfair dismissal will include a "basic award", calculated in a similar way to a redundancy payment in addition to compensation for financial loss. Where there is an unfair dismissal by reason of redundancy the basic award will be reduced by the amount of any redundancy payment awarded or paid. These provisions will remove the need for the kind of regulations provided for in paragraph 29, and that paragraph will, therefore, be repealed by the Bill.