OFFICIALS IN UNIONS

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30678, 18 February 1965, Page 13

OFFICIALS IN UNIONS

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter —Copyright > LONDON, Feb. 17. The House of Commons has agreed to give greater legal protection to union officials in trade disputes. Mr Ray Gunter, Minister of Labour, said an intolerable situation had been created for trade unionists by a recent court case which showed that officials who threatened a strike in breach of contract could be sued for intimidation. In the case referred to, Mr Douglas Rookes, a draughtsman employed by British Overseas Airways Corporation, won £4OOO damages from union officials. He had resigned from his uinon and was later dismissed after union officials demanded his removal from the design office. The courts held that the officials had conspired to intimidate 8.0.A.C. and that they were not protected by law.

This came as a great surprise, as it was generally thought trade union officials were protected by the Trades Disputes Act of 1906. Last night the Government brought in a bill to restore the .position to what trade unionists thought it was before the Rookes case. The bill got over its first main hurdle on its way through Parliament—the second reading—by 310 votes to 286—a Government majority of 24.