22 June 2018

The IER took its Manifesto for Labour Law policy ideas to Brighton on Wednesday as part of UNISON’s official fringe circuit.

Director of the IER, Carolyn Jones, opened the meeting with a brief overview of the Manifesto. She explained how the project started in 2015 at the request of the Labour Party’s Workplace 2020 team, through to Unison moving the motion in support of the Manifesto at the 2016 TUC, the adoption of the Manifesto as Labour’s blueprint for labour law in 2017, to the current work of IER’s experts in drilling down to detailed policy ideas.

Part of that detail is reflected in the work done by Lydia Hayes in outlining why sectoral collective bargaining (SCB) would be good for the adult social care sector - the subject of the fringe meeting.

John Hendy then outlined the four reasons why collective bargaining is so important - outlining the economic, social, industrial and legal reasons why sectoral collective bargaining would benefit the UK.

Christina McAnea, Assistant General Secretary for bargaining and equality in Unison, then discussed the union’s hopes and fears for the future of the adult care sector. She raised some issues around the possibilities and problems surrounding the introduction of sectoral collective bargaining and the need to first ensure that a proper funding structure was in place covering the care sector.

A lively debate then took place with questions from the floor about how SCB might work in practice and what the union needed to do to ensure the organising and recruitment potentials offered by sectoral bargaining are met.

Copies of Lydia Hayes’s book - 8 good reasons why adult social care needs sectoral collective bargaining - were snapped up by delegates and Cad suggested that regions wanting to engage more with the author should contact head office for possible speaker engagements.