Speeches by Wheeler.

“I am sure it is not. I worked in a retail establishment that did not benefit from trade union representation and that went through consultation, not on redundancy but on a variation of contracts, so it is relevant to what we were talking about before. It was actually a relatively smooth and easy process for employee re…”

“I will keep my contribution relatively short, but I did not want to let the clause pass without warmly welcoming its inclusion in the Bill. In a previous life, I worked to represent shop and retail workers. While P&O and the scandal of fire and rehire entered the collective consciousness, the Woolworths redundancy …”

“I agree with the comments of my hon. Friend the Member for Gloucester. I appreciate that this is a probing amendment, but I want to talk to its specifics. It appears to me that there are plenty of consensual mechanisms for achieving most of what the shadow Minister is suggesting about the variation of contracts to refl…”

“On a point of clarity, is it the purpose of the amendment or an unintended consequence of the drafting that it would completely delete the subsection, rather than adding to it? If the purpose is to completely delete the subsection it is amending, are Opposition Members trying to remove the protections for those going c…”

“It will come as no surprise to my hon. Friend that I agree with him. It is important that we keep our focus on the reality of work and the need to provide workers with protections and good-quality employment. The Bill has been brought forward in the context of “Make Work Pay” and the “Next Steps” document, and I look f…”

“As ever, it is an absolute pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Vaz. As usual, I draw the Committee’s attention to my declaration in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests, and particularly to my membership of the USDAW and GMB trade unions. I am sure it will not surprise the hon. Member for Dundee Centr…”

“The hon. Gentleman invites to me to say whether I am content. I draw his attention to the fact that the clause removes the single establishment loophole while leaving in place the thresholds that are already part of the law around consultation and the time period. I have not examined and, despite the invitation, I will…”

“I refer the Committee to my declaration in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests and my membership of trade unions. It seems that my thoughts align with those of my hon. Friend the Member for High Peak on the reasonableness of completely unforeseeable and unexpected things, but I would go a slight step further o…”

“I did so this morning, but I draw attention to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests as a member of the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers, as it pertains to some what I will say. First, I want to take us right back to the beginning of the debate, if we can remember that long ago. The sha…”

“As I said, I listened closely to the points that Opposition Members made. Like my hon. Friend the Member for Gloucester, I will allow the Minister to come back on the specifics of impact assessments. The point I am trying to make is that we are all looking at the same Bill and the same information. We might desire more…”

“I thank the shadow Minister for giving way, and I will keep my intervention short, Mr Stringer. We are hearing a lot of grandiose threats when it comes to the economy, and I would like to drag us back to the specifics. This measure is not a ban on dismissal; it is not even a protection from dismissal. It is a protectio…”

“It is, as ever, a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Christopher. As this is my first time speaking today, I draw everyone’s attention to my declaration in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests and my trade union memberships. I want to pick up very slightly on some of the points made by my hon. Frien…”

“Are you satisfied that Members’ ability to self-certify their eligibility for a proxy vote has been applied appropriately across all the different circumstances covered by the scheme?”

“To pick up some questions on a technical point—you would expect nothing less from this Committee, I suppose—the new proxy voting arrangements for absences related to fertility treatment sit in sub-paragraph (c) of Standing Order No. 39A(2), rather than as part of the arrangements for serious long-term illness or injury…”

“I thank the Secretary of State for the decisive action that he has announced today and for bringing it to us in the House. Nothing can be allowed to jeopardise the progress that has been made in Northern Ireland. Will he confirm that the thread running through this action, and any future action, is the Government’s fir…”

“I think that is a wonderful starting point—to feed things the other way. You have set out your ambition that the Modernisation Committee will operate as a clearing house, I think you said, that will draw on the work of a range of other Committees. I think you have touched on this partly—we were talking about us as a Co…”

“The first question we have is about a concern raised regarding the 1997-to-2010 Modernisation Committees, which is that they operated as a rubber-stamping exercise for proposals that were already supported by the Government. How will you ensure that the current incarnation—your incarnation—of the Modernisation Committe…”

“We are happy to do that.”

“Thank you. I have one more, sorry: moving wider, are there any other situations not currently eligible for a proxy vote to which you think the scheme should be extended?”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Stringer. I will speak to these Government amendments collectively, because although they are incredibly technical, we must not lose sight of their purpose, which is to promote good employment. If there are loopholes and readily available routes by which employers c…”