FAIRNESS
AT WORK
FOREWORD
By
the Prime Minister
This White
Paper is part of the Government’s programme to replace the
notion of conflict between employers and employees with the promotion
of partnership. It goes along with our emphasis on education and
skills - not overburdensome regulation - in the labour market,
as the best means of equipping business and people for a modern
economy. It complements our prudent economic management and our
proposals for encouraging small businesses and stimulating long-term
investment.
The White
Paper steers a way between the absence of minimum standards of
protection at the workplace, and a return to the laws of the past.
It is based on the rights of the individual, whether exercised
on their own or with others, as a matter of their choice. It matches
rights and responsibilities. It seeks to draw a line under the
issue of industrial relations law.
There will
be no going back. The days of strikes without ballots, mass picketing,
closed shops and secondary action are over. Even after the changes
we propose, Britain will have the most lightly regulated labour
market of any leading economy in the world. But it cannot be just
to deny British citizens basic canons of fairness - rights to
claim unfair dismissal, rights against discrimination for making
a free choice of being a union member, rights to unpaid parental
leave - that are a matter of course elsewhere.
These proposals,
together with the introduction of a minimum wage - set sensibly,
implemented sensibly - put a very minimum infrastructure of decency
and fairness around people in the workplace. They have been extensively
consulted upon with business and industry. They offer the right
way forward for the future.
My aim and
that of my colleagues is to build a fair and prosperous society
in the UK based on a strong and competitive economy. This White
Paper is a major contribution to that goal. It is about how a
competitive and growing economy itself requires a culture of fairness
and opportunity at work so that Britain can harness the talents
of all our people.
My ambition
for this White Paper goes far wider than the legal changes we
propose. It is nothing less than to change the culture of relations
in and at work - and to reflect a new relationship between work
and family life. It is often said that a change of culture cannot
be brought about by a change in the framework of law. But a change
in law can reflect a new culture, can enhance its understanding
and support its development.
Already modern
and successful companies draw their success from the existence
and development of partnership at work. Those who have learnt
to cherish and foster the creativity of their whole workforce
have found a resource of innovation and inventiveness that drives
their companies forward as well as enriching their lives.
So the new
culture we want to nurture and spread is one of voluntary understanding
and co-operation because it has been recognised that the prosperity
of each is bound up in the prosperity of all.
Against such
a background the law is there to give shape and support to these
new understandings and as a last resort to help resolve differences
and disputes if they should arise.
The three
pillars of our industrial policy are the pursuit of strong markets,
modern companies and the creation of an enterprise economy.
This White
Paper sets out a framework for the second of these aims and, in
so doing, the foundation for the third. It builds on the prompt
action we have already taken, for example to restore the right
to join trade unions at GCHQ, to sign the Social Chapter, to implement
the Working Time Directive and to put in place a national minimum
wage. It has at its centre our proposals for a fair balance of
rights and responsibilities at work. We make a range of proposals
- some minor, some more far-reaching in their scope. We intend,
subject to the consultation following publication of this document,
to legislate to carry it into effect and then to allow a proper
process of acceptance, adjustment and stability. So what we set
out here are our proposals for an industrial relations settlement
for this Parliament.
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