25 April 2003
The government may have to impose measures to resolve employment disputes in outsourced council contracts after insiders claimed this week that negotiations between unions and business were fraught.
The talks are aimed at agreeing a model for alternative dispute resolution following February's deal to end the two-tier workforce.
Prime Minister Tony Blair personally intervened to broker a new employment code, which delighted the unions but infuriated the private sector.
Under the code, which is already in use, private contractors providing local authority services must provide new staff with terms and conditions 'no less favourable' than those of existing workers. The code also contained a crucial arbitration clause allowing for a model to resolve disputes without legal recourse.
Crucially, ministers have told unions and the private sector that they will have to agree a model before the middle of May or they will impose one.
Representatives from the unions, the Local Government Association, the Confederation of British Industry and the Business Services Association have already held two meetings but insiders described them as tense and 'bloody awful'. The composition of the group is almost the same as the one that failed to come to an agreement on the Best Value code and tensions are still high after Blair's intervention.
The current sticking point is thought to be binding arbitration. Unions are pressing for an independent arbitrator who could make a quick and binding judgement on any disputes of the code. But the CBI wants a 'get out' clause allowing it to seek legal action if it disagrees with the arbitrator, sources said.
'There is not a real meeting of minds. I think industry is playing the wrong card at present. And there are those that would like to have the government impose something so that they can reject it,' one source told Public Finance.
Norman Rose, director general of the BSA, said: 'It is still early days but industry is looking for some comfort that whatever comes out of this process will be fair and reasonable.' He added that his personal view was to have something 'quick and easy'.
Unison conceded that the negotiations were tense but said it was confident some agreement could be reached. 'Nobody wants to go back to ministers having failed a second time,' said Malcolm Wing, Unison's national secretary.
PFapr2003
