HC Deb 08 March 1983 vol 38 c372W
34. Mr. Cockeram

asked the Secretary of State for Employment whether he considers that procedural agreements between employers and employees should be made legally binding; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Gummer

The observance of agreed procedures is essential for orderly industrial relations, and the possibility of making procedure agreements legally enforceable was canvassed in the 1981 Green Paper on trade union immunities. Legal enforceability raises a number of practical difficulties, but if these could be overcome there would be definite attractions in a measure of this kind. It is one of the possibilities that the Government are examining carefully.