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Postal Services Bill [HL]

I support my noble friend in these amendments. As he rightly explained, his proposed wording enormously strengthens the protection for employees in the event of transfers and in a number of other situations as well. As he rightly says, TUPE regulations are acknowledged by everybody in the labour relations world as providing very necessary support for employees faced with transfers of one kind or another. Indeed, I can remember a long while ago when the TUPE regulations were first introduced and how a number of us in the trade union movement had fought for those regulations. They made an enormous difference to employment in all sorts of ways. It means that employees have been willing to go along with transfers when they would not willingly have done so because they had been assured of protection for their terms and conditions of employment. My noble friend’s amendments seek to extend and deepen the protection offered by TUPE. I commend them to the Committee. I am sure that they will help things enormously. As a number of us have said, whatever is done in this Bill, you have to take the employees with you. You have to have the confidence of the employees whatever you do as far as this Bill is concerned. Therefore these amendments should be supported.