§ Mr. Spellerasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will seek to amend the law in order to provide that anyone who has been employed for a stated period of time by a company operating a closed shop agreement with a recognised trade union may not be dismissed by reason of not belonging to the appropriate union.
§ Mr. WaddingtonThe law was changed by the Employment Act 1980 to provide that the dismissal of an employee for not joining a union in accordance with a closed-shop agreement will be unfair in a number of circumstances, whatever the employeee's length of service. These circumstances include where the employee was in employment before the closed-shop agreement was introduced and he has chosen not to join the union since; and where an employee has genuine objections on grounds of conscience of deeply-held personal conviction to being a member of a particular union or any union whatsoever.
The Green Paper on Trade Union Immunities (Cmnd 8128) discusses a number of possible changes in the law, including possible further amendments to unfair dismissal law, which will be considered.