'Collective bargaining is our best weapon'

Louise Nousratpour
Equalities Reporter
Sunday February 7, 2010
The Morning Star

Unite assistant leader Gail Cartmail said on Saturday that persistent breaches of equality laws by employers had made unions' collective bargaining power an indispensable tool in protecting workers' rights.

She was addressing an event in London organised by Sertuc to discuss issues around the Single Equality Bill, which is currently before Parliament. The landmark legislation is at risk of being lost if it is not passed into law before the general election.

Ms Cartmail expressed her full support for the Bill, but argued that relying on legal minimum entitlements alone would do little to protect people's rights at work.

Drawing attention to the yawning gender pay gap and widespread racial discrimination in the workplace, she said: "Employers continue to evade their legal obligations" decades after the introduction of the Equal Pay Act and the Race Relations Act.

"I'm also worried about the impact the proposed cuts in public services will have on the whole equality agenda. Some of the bodies earmarked for cuts are responsible for enforcing these laws."

This, she argued, was why "we must look beyond the legal minimum and rely more on what I call the union advantage. In many unionised workplaces, we have negotiated above and beyond those legal minimums."

Ms Cartmail highlighted new TUC guidelines on family-friendly policies released last week and urged unions to "activate" the recommendations by incorporating them in future negotiation agreements.

She told a room full of equality reps at TUC Congress House: "It is people like yourselves, taking up roles as workers' representatives, who can move the equality agenda forward and realise its full potential."