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Postal Services Bill [HL]

The amendment seeks to create a scheme which I know has the support of many Members of the Committee and, I detect, does not meet with total opposition from the Secretary of State. The noble Lord, Lord Razzall, has tabled an amendment in this group which offers a slightly different model of employee participation to my own and I look forward to hearing him speak on the subject. The incentive of giving employees a stake in the success of their own company is well understood. Royal Mail has, of course, set up ColleagueShare, a phantom share scheme giving employees the opportunity to receive dividends if the company hits its targets and to sell the shares back at the end of five years, presumably at a profit if the modernisation process goes through and goes well. The scheme set out under the heading "Provisions for employee ownership scheme" attempts to mirror the incentives that apply in an equity-based share scheme. Does the Minister feel that the real deal would offer many more rewards for employees? As my noble friend Lord Fowler mentioned at Second Reading, there are a range of views about whether or not to give employees more of a share in the company for which they work. Historically, there are some in the trade unions who do not like giving employees that power, and he has set out some examples in the past. However, there are others in the trade union movement, truly representative of the workforce, who I have always found have great popularity among their members because they advocate employee share ownership. The noble Lord, Lord Brooke of Alverthorpe, was also quite right to point to the improved relationship with employees that results then staff are given that greater involvement and participation in the running of the undertaking for which they work. I declare an interest not only as a solicitor but as one who used to act for the Transport and General Workers’ Union for many years and who is a strong supporter of the trade union movement when it offers real incentives and real benefits to its members. Indeed, there is no better organisation at looking after its members than the trade union movement that I used to serve, in tending to those who were injured or who had lost a member of their family. The amount of help and resources that came from the trade unions was remarkable. Those in the movement and those who represent employees have, rightly, often welcomed the opportunity for their members—and, indeed, for employees—to have the right to own shares. As I understand it, the Bill in its present form does nothing to rule out the establishment of an employee share-ownership scheme, but the reality is that any such scheme would naturally have an impact on the negotiation and establishment of a private partnership deal.