The government’s trade union bill suffered three humiliating defeats in its report stage reading in the House of Lords on Wednesday night.
Peers voted against the government by a margin of nearly 2 to 1 on amendments relating to electronic balloting, facility time and political campaigning funds. Significantly, several Conservative peers voted against the government or decided to abstain.
Matt Wrack, FBU general secretary, said: “When even Tory peers are voting down their own party’s hard edged trade union policy, you know they’ve gone too far.
“This is a significant setback for the government and will encourage the millions of trade unionists in the UK to step up our campaigning against such anti-democratic legislation.
“We’d urge the government to drop this punitive legislation for good. However we are all prepared to continue fighting if they want to continue with their undemocratic attacks.”
Peers in the House of Lords voted against proposals to force trade union members to ‘opt in’ if they wanted to contribute to a union’s political fund, which would reverse the current requirement of opting out. If adopted, their amendments would mean that new rules would now only apply to new members.
The Lords also voted against the government’s ban on electronic balloting with a successful amendment being voted through for an independent commission on the use of electronic balloting.
A third defeat for the government came over their plan to impose caps on facility time for union reps in local public services.
Following a third reading of the bill in the Lords, expected to take place in mid-April, it will then return to the House of Commons to consider the peers amendments.
