Fighting for fairness

From Grangemouth to the streets of London, union Unite’s inflatable rat has been working hard in recent months. It has even appeared outside the offices of at least one affordable housing provider. However, it’s not the RSPCA which is now intervening, but rather the government.

Over the recent weeks, Unite’s tactics have been garnering attention from the press and politicians. Employers and the government have raised concerns over the manner it has been conducting industrial action, which has included members congregating outside the homes of management; senior staff being personally caricatured in posters and flyers; and the use of a large inflatable rat intended to depict managers who disagree with the union.

Personal attack
Unite has attempted to defend and justify its use of ‘leverage tactics’, which include the targeting of managers directly, by arguing that those employers they view as being bad employers should have nowhere to hide.
Prime minister David Cameron has said: ‘Of course people have a right to protest, of course trade unions have a right to represent their members and to take industrial action. But no one has a right to intimidate, nobody has a right to bully… no one has a right to threaten people in their homes.’

Further controls
The government has launched a review of legislation with the possible introduction of further controls on how unions are allowed to conduct themselves during industrial action.

Such changes may include the introduction of new laws to stop intimidation and harassment of managers and their families during industrial disputes, and the prevention of unions from attempting to sabotage business supply chains.

The review will be chaired by Bruce Carr QC, one of the UK’s leading industrial relations barristers, along with two experts, one of which will be representing the interests of trade unions. The review is expected to take six months.

For the moment, however, in the increasingly heated battle for workers’ rights, we’re likely to continue to see uncomplimentary cartoons of managers over the Christmas period and vuvuzela recitals outside offices until changes are made to the law.

Playing fair
There seems to be no debate over whether unions should have the right to fight for their members; it’s just a case of fair play and the targeting of individuals which seems to be the issue. The feeling of many employers, the government and individuals appears to be that some of the tactics adopted by Unite were just not cricket and could be perceived as being more rodent-like (excuse the pun).

Eugene Wojciechowski, partner, Penningtons Manches

To read more about union action click here.