27 August 2014

A review of laws governing industrial disputes, set up in the wake of the events at Grangemouth, will not make any recommendations, the report’s author Bruce Carr QC has announced.

Carr was hand-picked to publish the report which had been commissioned by cabinet officer Frances Maude. Frances O’Grady described this as a “party political stunt” to discredit trade unions.

However the move ostensibly backfired, with Carr claiming objectivity had been drastically compromised.

He said, “I am also concerned about the ability of the review to operate in a progressively politicised environment in the run up to the next general election. That being so, I have reached the conclusion that it will simply not be possible for the review to put together a substantial enough body of evidence from which to provide a sound basis for making recommendations for change.”

Len McCluskey, general secretary of Unite, concluded, “The Tories have spectacularly shot themselves in the foot on this. They have embarrassed their own appointee, Bruce Carr, into accepting this report for what it was all along – a desperate pre-election stunt to smear democratic trades unions and their members.”

Carr is being paid £1500 per day for his work on the report. The full costs will be published “in due course” according to the cabinet office.

A blog on the review by Tony Burke, Assistant General Secretary of Unite, can be read here.