13 June 2003
It is inevitable that local government's code on the two-tier workforce will be now rolled out across the public sector, business leaders conceded this week, as final negotiations ended with an agreement on dispute resolution.
Unison said the joint submission from local government, unions and the private sector was the 'last piece in the jigsaw' and was 'a step closer' to ending the two-tier workforce.
The agreement, yet to be approved by local government minister Nick Raynsford, gives the employment code, announced in February, real teeth. Until now it has been voluntary.
The deal will govern disagreements over whether new staff joining outsourced contracts are being offered terms and conditions 'no less favourable' than those of their existing colleagues.
Any disputes that can't be resolved through local mediation will be referred to Acas for independent and binding arbitration, effectively making the code enforceable. There will also be a 40-day time limit ensuring swift resolution.
Norman Rose, director general of the Business Services Association, said the process was 'quick and clear' and 'recognises a need for flexibility on all sides'.
While those in local government can celebrate the end of 18 months of tortuous negotiations, the government will now come under renewed pressure to extend the code to the rest of the public sector. Unison, the GMB and the T&G are already lobbying the prime minister.
Sources were predicting an announcement at the Labour Party conference in the autumn, with ministers unlikely to want another union row over public services as their summer conferences kicked off this week.
Rose conceded that an expansion was inevitable. 'The private sector will want to get assurances that they are continuing the modernising agenda and the money to deal with it,' he told Public Finance.
But he said the next big question would be whether the government was willing to risk a similar deal for second- or third-generation workers. 'We will have yet another multi-tier workforce until something is done.'
He claimed these workers could make up 60–70% of the contracted-out workforce.
PFjun2003
