Freedom of speech and the law – any volunteers?

“Freedom of speech is the right to be heard” (Tony Benn on the Today programme, 22 February 2008).

The last issue of the Journalist reported that the chapel at the South Wales Evening Post is seeking statutory recognition through the Central Arbitration Committee (CAC).

If this application is successful then the NUJ will be recognised by Northcliffe Newspapers in Bristol, Leicester and Swansea. If the application fails then Swansea will join the Northcliffe chapels at Stoke and Aberdeen whose attempts (Stoke on two occasions) to obtain recognition through the CAC were unsuccessful.

Prior to the ending of the NUJ/Newspaper Society national agreement in December 1986 the union was recognised by Northcliffe in 20 centres which published 12 daily and eight weekly newspapers.

Now there is only the recently achieved recognition in Leicester (Bristol was independent in 1986).

Is there another way for the union to obtain a collective presence in every workplace when an employer refuses voluntary recognition?

The union appears to be mesmerised by the belief that the only alternative to voluntary recognition for collective bargaining is statutory recognition allowing a union to bargain over pay, hours and holidays.

There is a potential alternative which is the collective right of a union and its members to be heard.

This right to make collective representations to an employer, i.e. to raise a collective grievance, cannot be vetoed by employers.

Its existence was confirmed by the European Court of Human Rights on 2 July 2002 at the end of the protracted litigation involving NUJ member Dave Wilson and Associated Newspapers which, like Northcliffe Newspapers, is owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust.

The Government could have allowed unrecognised trade unions to raise collective grievances in the Employment Act 2002 (Dispute Resolution) Regulations 2004 which came into force on 1 October 2004, but regulation 9(2) confined this statutory right to an official of an independent recognised union or an employee representative elected or appointed under a procedure agreed with the employer.

This legislation (due to be repealed in April 2009) could be challenged in an Employment Tribunal in a trade union and membership activities case, i.e. the denial of the right of the unrecognised union and its members to be heard.

Are there any volunteers to promote freedom of speech?

Gary Morton

London E8

 

 

 

The Journalist is published by the National Union of Journalists