{"id":5524,"date":"2015-09-07T17:06:42","date_gmt":"2015-09-07T16:06:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=5524"},"modified":"2015-09-08T12:20:43","modified_gmt":"2015-09-08T11:20:43","slug":"major-attack-on-civil-liberties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=5524","title":{"rendered":"Major attack on civil liberties"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Conservative government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s proposed Trade Union Bill has come under continued attack \u00e2\u20ac\u201c today (September 7) from three prominent human rights groups, which have denounced the Bill as a \u00e2\u20ac\u015bmajor attack on civil liberties\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n

 
\nLiberty, Amnesty UK and the British Institute of Human Rights (BIHR) argued in a joint statement today that the Trade Union Bill proposals, which include strike ballot thresholds and severe restrictions on picketing, among other measures, will be a direct blow to the rights of all working people.<\/p>\n

 
\nCriticism from the groups comes in the wake of the Regulatory Planning Committee (RPC) slamming the government last month<\/a> (August 21) over its failure to conduct thorough impact assessments on the bill. The independent body condemned the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s impact assessments to date as \u00e2\u20ac\u015bred \u00e2\u20ac\u201c not fit for purpose.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nA public consultation on the Trade Union Bill is set to close on Wednesday (September 9).<\/p>\n

 
\nNeedlessly restrictive<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

 
\nThe human rights groups railed against proposals regulating picketing, pointing out that they were needlessly restrictive because \u00e2\u20ac\u015bpickets are already more regulated than any other kind of protest\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n

 
\nThe government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s original Trade Union Bill proposals had called for an appointed picketing supervisor to oversee every picket line, who must be register with the police, must wear an armband and must carry an authorised letter issued by the union.<\/p>\n

 
\nBut now, the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s consultation has put forward the possibility of all members<\/em> participating in a picket line to be similarly registered, or risk hefty fines of between \u00c2\u0141200 and \u00c2\u014120,000.<\/p>\n

 
\nLiberty highlighted that these restrictions carried to such an extreme would \u00e2\u20ac\u015bhark back to historical problems\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 between trade unions and authorities.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWith a history of blacklisting it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s entirely understandable why trade union members don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to identify themselves to the police and give the police their phone numbers,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Liberty policy officer Sara Ogilvie noted.<\/p>\n

 
\nUnions may even have to notify employers, police and state regulators of their detailed protest plans, including what they intend to publish on social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook, as well as on websites and blogs as part of their campaign. Violating these rules could lead to strikes being deemed illegal.<\/p>\n

 
\nSome proposals in the Bill could even be in violation of international conventions, the human rights groups contended.<\/p>\n

 
\nOne such proposal calls for all abstaining votes in a ballot to be counted as \u00e2\u20ac\u0098no\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 votes \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a measure that Liberty said would be illegal under International Labour Organisation (ILO) standards, to which the UK has committed.<\/p>\n

 
\nUndermining rights of all working people<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bTaken together the unprecedented measures in the Bill would hamper people\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s basic rights to protest and shift even more power from the employee to the employer,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Amnesty UK, Liberty and BIHR noted in their joint statement.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt is hard to see the aim of this bill as anything but seeking to undermine the rights of all working people,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 they said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe owe so many of our employment protections to trade unions and we join them in opposing this bill.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nUnite assistant general secretary Steve Turner hailed the human rights groups\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 statement, adding that they were yet another prominent voice in the mounting case against the Trade Union Bill.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe Trade Union Bill is increasingly being exposed for what it is \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a sinister attack on the rights of working people,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bAs human rights groups have said today, the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s proposals go far beyond the ballot thresholds that have received the most attention so far.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bProposed restrictions on picket lines, with every single participating member being required to register with the police, are designed for the sole purpose of instilling fear in people who are simply coming together to protect their jobs and their rights,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Turner added.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe Bill also includes measures that are naked attempts to strangle trade unions in red tape, when nearly 80 per cent of people recognise trade unions as being essential to protecting their interests at work.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nTurner noted that the proposals are entirely driven by a sinister ideology, one that obscures and twists the true nature of the work that trade unions actually do.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnder these draconian proposals, the government is operating under the profound misconception that most disputes with employers lead to strikes,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe fact of the matter is that the vast majority of disputes are resolved without any animosity between employer and employee \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and unions are the conduit that helps facilitate productive discussion between management and workers.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe threat of strike is peoples\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 last resort when dealing with difficult employers,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bFor good employers, strong unions are celebrated and valued. The Trade Union Bill will serve only to damage worker-employer relations. This is bad news for working people, and ultimately, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be bad news for business, too.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Conservative government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s proposed Trade Union Bill has come under continued attack \u00e2\u20ac\u201c today (September 7) from three prominent human rights groups, which have denounced the Bill as a \u00e2\u20ac\u015bmajor attack on civil liberties\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.   Liberty, Amnesty UK and the British Institute of Human Rights (BIHR) argued in a joint statement today that the Trade […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2110,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[344],"wps_subtitle":"Human rights groups slam proposed Trade Union Bill","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5524"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5524"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5524\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5527,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5524\/revisions\/5527"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}