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Dundee City Council leader challenged over Trade Union Bill

Shadow Scottish secretary Ian Murray wants local authorities to defy the Bill.
Shadow Scottish secretary Ian Murray wants local authorities to defy the Bill.

Dundee City Council has been challenged to follow Fife’s lead and ignore trade union reforms proposed by the UK Government.

But administration leader Ken Guild has so far failed to respond to, or acknowledge, the letter from shadow Scottish secretary Ian Murray.

Labour’s sole Scottish MP wrote to Mr Guild asking the SNP group in the city to agree to the same actions as its Labour counterparts by refusing to implement the legal switch.

Fife is one of five authorities to have vowed to reject the law changes, presuming they are brought into force by the Conservative majority at Westminster.

In the correspondence, Mr Murray said: “In the past two weeks, the leaders of the city authorities in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen have said publicly that they will not cooperate with these new provisions, and intend to continue with facility time and check off.

“I understand that the Labour group on Dundee City Council has put forward the issue for discussion at a meeting on October 26.

“Given that Dundee is Scotland’s fourth largest city, and your authority employees around 8,000 people, I am hoping you can join Scotland’s city authorities in opposing the Tories’ Trade Union Bill and stating unequivocally that you will not cooperate with the efforts to remove facility time and check off.”

Mr Guild failed to respond to The Courier, despite repeated attempts to contact him to request a comment on whether or not he will implement the Bill onto local workers.

Fife Council leader David Ross said: “I have real concerns about the Trade Union Bill which is currently being proposed by the UK Government and which would affect this council’s relationship with our trade unions and our workforce as a whole.

“I see this as an attack on local democracy and an attack on our right to manage our own affairs.”

Meanwhile, The Courier can also reveal that not a single SNP MP has moved an amendment against the Trade Union Bill.

Each of the 71 alterations put forward come from Labour, proposed by shadow business secretary Angela Eagle and backed by Edinburgh South MP Mr Murray.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has written to UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn asking him to back her plans to devolve trade union and employment law from Westminster to Holyrood, while emphasising her opposition to it.