This response is submitted by the Local Government Association (LGA) on behalf of local authorities, fire authorities and maintained schools. The LGA is a cross-party organisation that is the national voice of local government. We work with councils and central government to support, promote and improve local government. The LGA covers every part of England and Wales and includes county and district councils, metropolitan and unitary councils, London boroughs, Welsh unitary councils (via the Welsh LGA), as well as fire and national park authorities. The Workforce Team of the LGA offers advice on employment issues and represents local government employer interests to central government, government agencies, trade unions and other interested parties.
The LGA manages sectoral collective bargaining in local government and national collective bargaining arrangements for fire, education and related sectors in total covering around two million employees. Elected councillors (and other employer organisations where appropriate) and nationally recognised trade unions work together in a positive way to reach collective agreements on key employment issues such as pay and terms and conditions.
In addition to the national process, local authorities routinely recognise unions at a local level and engagement between the parties is generally positive, collective bargaining being valued by both employers and employees alike. In seeking to engage positively with trade unions and to be an employer of choice, local authorities will always recognise that local government is responsible for the provision of safe and secure services to the public and the critical importance of ensuring value for money for local taxpayers.
In responding to this consultation, we have focused on and sought the views of local authorities on the key questions set out below.
Simplifying industrial action ballots
Question 17 – How should government ensure that our modern framework for industrial relations successfully delivers trade unions a meaningful mandate to support negotiation and dispute resolution?
It is important that trade unions have a meaningful mandate for their actions, including proposed industrial action. Evidence of such a mandate will demonstrate to employers the importance of the relevant issue to employees, which in turn will then help underpin negotiations with a view to reaching a constructive agreement.
The LGA therefore believes that for there to be a mandate for industrial action, there should be a minimum turnout threshold, and so on the removal of the current 50 per cent threshold it should be replaced with a reasonable new threshold that provides sufficient assurance that any industrial action genuinely is the will of union members. We believe that threshold should be 35 per cent - that level is a reasonable balance between the interests of employers in ensuring that lawful industrial action cannot be taken without a reasonable level of employee support; and the interests of unions in ensuring they are able to take lawful industrial action without unreasonable hurdles being placed on them and their members.
Question 18 – Do you agree or disagree with the proposed changes to Section 226A of the 1992 Act to simplify the information that unions are required to provide employers in the notice of ballot?
Please explain your reasoning.
It is important that employers have as much information as is reasonable when industrial action ballots are held. Therefore, councils will have concerns about simplifying the information that unions have to provide, for example in relation to the number of workers at the relevant workplace, if that obstructs them in, for example, the delivery of critical services to vulnerable members of the public. In seeking adequate information local government employers are not looking to thwart legitimate industrial action but to make provision to prevent risk to life and security of the public. Ultimately, the objective is to resolve the dispute and unreasonableness on the part of either employers or unions is not in the interest of this.
Question 23 – Do you agree or disagree with the proposal to simplify the amount of information that unions must provide employers in the industrial action notice?
Please explain your reasoning.
As with our response to question 18, it is important that employers have as much information as is reasonable when industrial action is called, the provision of that information helping them to plan how the most critical public services can be provided during such action.
Question 25 – Do you agree or disagree with the proposal to extend the expiration date of a trade union’s legal mandate for industrial action from six to 12 months?
The LGA disagrees with the proposal to extend the mandate from six to 12 months. During the course of a year a lot can change, especially in councils which often need to adapt rapidly to meet changing pressures on finances and the demand for services. Therefore, it is not appropriate that a ballot mandate should last for 12 months, as it is highly likely that the surrounding circumstances underpinning the dispute on which the action was called will have changed. In such cases it is appropriate that the union should have to re-ballot if industrial action is to continue. Therefore, the default expiration date of an industrial action ballot should remain as six months.
Question 26 – What time period for notice of industrial action is appropriate?
Please explain your reasoning.
Having adequate time to prepare for industrial action is important for local and fire authorities, to enable them to prepare for the action and to ensure that the most critical public services continue to be delivered during the action. Part of that preparation will often include negotiating arrangements with the trade unions for cover to be provided by some of their members. The LGA supported the revocation of Minimum Service Level rules where that threatened to undermine these voluntary agreements, but it remains important that sufficient space exists to have these vital discussions. These plans take time to agree, and seven days’ notice will in many cases not be enough. Employers and unions though are now familiar with the 14-day notice period, and so there is logic in retaining the period of notice at 14 days. Such a period does not undermine the ability of unions to take effective industrial action, as even where the employer has enough notice to be able to plan for it, the action will still cause disruption but not endanger the public.
Local Government Association
[email protected]
2 December 2024