Mersey Docks And Harbour Company & Port Of Liverpool Employment Practices

EDM number 1484 in 1994-95, proposed by Eddie Loyden on 18/10/1995.

That this House joins with Church leaders, local authorities, local media, Merseyside communities and the families of the dockworkers in condemning the sacking by port employers, including Mersey Docks and Harbour Company, of 500 dockworkers for failing to cross a picket line staffed by five Torside dockers who were sacked instantly in breach of their employment contract, following an unofficial dispute which arose following a minor incident; notes that the Mersey Docks and Harbour Company has placed advertisements in the local papers to recruit casual workers; further notes that this contradicts the assurances given by the Right honourable Member for Sutton Coldfield during the Second Reading Debate of the Dock Work Bill 1988-89 that 'Casual working has gone for good'; and believes that this dispute is engineered by the employers to facilitate the recruitment of casual labour and again reminds the Government that the honourable Member for Sutton Coldfield also said at the time that 'Those who seek to argue that the scheme (Dock Labour Scheme) should be preserved to prevent casualism should have no public credibility'. (Relevant registered interest declared).

This motion has been signed by a total of 75 MPs.