Conservative Government
From 1979, the UK's Conservative government took a strongly sceptical policy to all forms of employment law and regulation. It opted out of the Social Chapter. This approached mirrored the policy trend of the 1980s, where ten major Acts reduced the power of trade unions. Reforms to the internal structure of unions mandated that representatives be elected and a ballot is taken before a strike, that no worker could strike in sympathetic secondary action with workers with a different employer, and that employers could not run a closed shop system of requiring all workers to join the recognised union. The wage councils were dismantled, and a public campaign against the merits of unions paralleled the decline of membership and collective agreement coverage to under 40 per cent.
Read more about this topic: History Of Labour Law In The United Kingdom
Famous quotes containing the words conservative and/or government:
“A Conservative government is an organised hypocrisy.”
—Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881)
“... it were impossible for a people to be more completely identified with their government than are the Americans. In considering it, they seem to feel, “It is ours, we have created it, and we support it; it exists for our protection and service; it lives as the breath of our mouths; and, while it answers the ends for which we decreed it, so long shall it stand, and nought shall prevail against it.””
—Frances Wright (1795–1852)