There were four principal points of criticism
of the draft Bill and I am glad to be able to tell
you that three of the four areas of objection have
been met by changes in the Bill. These are
(a) Registration of temporary unions.
These provisions are being deleted from the
Bill
(b) Debarment of persons from holding office in a
trade union for a period of five years when
they have been convicted of certain defined
offences.
In view of the criticism of obscurity levelled
against the inclusion of offences against public
order", this has been deleted.
(c)
Addition of "obstruction" to the picketing law
The clause has been dropped.
The fourth point concerned the deletion from the
exising law of permission to picket a person's
private residence. Very careful consideration was
given to the objections made against this change in
the law but I think you will appreciate that,
particularly in overseas conditions, picketing of a
person's home is likely to result in intimidation.
I would emphasise, however, that the amendment to the
law does not restrict the right to picket at a place
where a person both resides and works.
I hope you will agree that all this represents
a very considerable improvement on the original
draft.
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