Will it be necessary to have legislation about the reconstitution of the State boards?
Worker Participation (State Enterprises) Bill, 1976: Committee and Final Stages.
By order of both Houses.
I should like to reiterate briefly that, while I welcome this Bill, I regard it as just the first stage along the line the Minister has charted towards a fuller industrial democracy. An interesting aspect concerns the voting procedures. We have an excellent precedent in voting procedures which can be adopted over a wide area of industrial democracy, particularly in regard to pre-empting industrial action. This is a matter towards which we should all be seeking to make progress. If one can so democratise responsibility within industry, then there should be the co-responsibility with that of democratising in any form of industrial action arising out of procedures having gone wrong within an industry or enterprise. The type of democratic voting procedures embodied in this Bill in regard to electing worker directors should be embodied in future legislation and should be followed before decisions are made to take industrial action.