a l am told there is an official committee considering the
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subject of Industrial Democracy. Could you say whether this is so and, if so, what is the background and the likely outcome?
AThe Bullock Committee on Industrial Democracy has so far considered more than 200 'submissions from interested organisations in management, the trade unions, and elsewhere.
The Committee's report is hoped for towards the end of 1976. Cabinet discussions on the likely form of legislation will then ensue, but because of the congested Parliamentary timetable it seems unlikely that detailed legislation could be debated in the 1976/77 Parliamentary session. A general election may occur before the shape of legislation can be decided.
Three of the four largest unions in the private sector (AUEW, GMWU and the EETPU) have opposed the TUC's proposals for worker directors on supervisory boards of companies. These unions want radical legislation to extend company level bargaining.
British trade unions were asked by Mrs Barbara Castle, when she was Secretary for Employment, to spell out their firm ideas for extended industrial democracy. The past few years have provided union's with an opportunity to think through the many problems: in particular, whether "worker directors" should be lay members or union officials, and the extent to which union representatives on company boards would be "compromisedwith their lay members if unpopular management decisions were taken with the support of the trade union board members.