by Chris McLaughlin
Unions have won a major breakthrough in the campaign for wider national collective bargaining over wages and conditions.
Ministers have agreed in private talks with union officials to accept the principle of “sector forums”, a tripartite body bringing workers and employers together.
While talks are at a “very early stage” according to a union source, the acceptance of the principle is seen as a “very big step” and a sign that the Government is beginning to pay more heed to the voice of the unions.
Initially the policy would apply only to the care industry, covering social work, care homes and other services.
Negotiations would cover low pay, skills levels, training and career development. Though they would be convened by the Government, neither ministers nor Whitehall civil servants will participate directly.
While much of the detail and timetable for implementation has yet to be worked out, the move is seen by unions as a significant shift in the long standing campaign to increase the level of national collective bargaining in Britain. Just 35 per cent of the British workforce is covered by collective bargaining compared to more than 90 per cent in most European Union countries.
Implementation in the care industry is seen as a building block to introduce the principle in other sectors but there are strong doubts of progress being made on this until after the next election which the Government is currently on course to lose.
Gordon Brown returned from the G8 summit this week with ministers braced for a possible catastrophic defeat in the Glasgow East by-election, caused by the retirement on health grounds of David Marshall, who held a majority of 13,507.
Amid pressure to define a new direction for the party following a series of disastrous developments and events under his leadership this year, Mr Brown is said by Downing Street to be genuinely open to many proposals emerging through the current policy-making process and the unions’ Warwick II demands (see story opposite). But aides say there will be no concessions to demands for new laws on supportive picketing because of its associations with “secondary picketing’ and the power of the unions.
The three-day National Policy Forum meeting to discuss the next general election manifesto begins on the day after the Glasgow East by-election which will bring further intense speculation on the immediate future of Mr Brown if, as is now seen as a possibility, Labour loses.
Rumours of plots to oust Mr Brown this year or next are circulating at Westminster and deputy leader Harriet Harman was forced to dismiss speculation that she has been positioning herself to take over if Mr Brown is forced out of the leadership.
