Worker participation

Is a revelation at hand?

Francis Wintle

When the chips are down, as they often are, I, for one, am for democracy and for more of it.

"People," as the motor car manufacturer said on television the other night, "have stopped talking to each other in my industry." All over the country people are not talking to each other and democracy is at stake, and I for one am not satisfied.

What am I on about? Is there some revelation at hand? Are the chips down yet again? What in the world can there be, now that we have all had our say about Phase 3 and the pitiful and inadequate and disgraceful and derisory (if it were funny) £10 Christmas present for the pensioner, that is of interest to those of us who are vitally concerned with democracy and political principle? The answer, for those who follow these matters with the same passionate concern as I do, is simple: the forthcoming Green Paper.

Green Paper? Maplin again? Foulness? Sheerness? Another pamphlet on government expenditure? More wasting the taxpayer's money?

No. It won't cost a new penny. I repeat, in case you don't believe me — it doesn't cost any money. Because I am talking about something even more important than elaborate plans to waste the taxpayer's money and cause demographic and environmental inconvenience and general misery. I am talking about the forthcoming Government Green Paper on Worker Participation. And what, you, knowing no better, may ask, of that? To which the answer (SIC) is this:

The Government's Green Paper on Worker Participation is, in all probability, going to say nothing at all. It promises to be one of the most boring, negative, timid and uninspiring documents this Government has produced. If the Government could have its way, the Green Paper would probably be of almost no significance at all. But in spite of themselves, in spite of the evil machinations of the forces of reaction, in spite of the nameless terror of the great unknown, in spite of the fact that the document may actually say quite remarkably little, in spite of all these things and many more, the said Green Paper heralds not only a new social contract, but the doom and deathknell of Marxism, socialism, the new left, the old right and all the named and nameless horrors that we have all been living with for so many years. Yes, it does all this and more. And if I were an historian, or a social scientist, or, that rarest of breeds, a political novelist, I should make it the subject of a careful study. I should set up a library to amass in one place the rapidly expanding literature on participation and industrial democracy. And in fifty years, when the political in-fighting we shall shortly be witnessing is all over, when the unpleasant face of capitalism has been expunged for ever; we shall all be able 'to look back and say — of course, that Green Paper was the start of it all, and whoever would have thought it? Except, of course, that .1 shall be able to say: I

did, and I told you so.

For at that future date, a man will no longer be able to arrive at a works in which he has no personal interest, no job satisfaction, no capital stake or share of the profits, and read on a notice board that, after twenty-five years work, he is to be made redundant without any prior warning or consultation. Or that his company has been merged, taken over, stripped, nationalised, gone bankrupt, changed its product from car components to lollipops, without so much as a by your leave and at the decision of a few rich gentlemen he has never seen. But then by that time, the rule of the few in industry will have been replaced by the control of the many. And however little it says, the Green Paper is going at least to acknowledge that the 'new' capitalism, of which Mr Peter Walker spoke , recently with such fervent inexactitude, must mean the start of employee participation, which Mr Herbert Asquith spoke up for in a little more detail, a little bit longer ago.

Now there are several things which a progressive government could suggest. They could say that there should be works councils with real powers in all plants and factories of any size. They could say that these councils, instead of being the glorified canteen committees they usually are, should have something to do: that, for instance, the representatives elected onto them by a free vote of all their fellow employees, should have the right to decide with management such things as conditions of work and employment, the running of pension funds and so on. They could suggest that employees have the vote in the election of directors, to put them on the same footing as shareholders. They might suggest that there should be widespread profit sharing and similar schemes which would benefit all employees — even the poor ones (unlike the share ownership scheme suggested in the Budget earlier this year).

They might. And if they do I take back all' the rude things I have just said about the Green Paper. But it isn't very likely that theY will.

If they did, they would be following what has already been practice in most European countries for years. Germany and Holland have Supervisory Boards where shareholder and employee representatives watch over the doings of executive Boards. All Europeat,n countries have works councils operating, wit the exception of Italy. And the Italians have strike record very nearly as bad as our own.

Normally, Britain loses about three times as

many days through industrial disputes as France or Germany. In 1971 we were able te, maintain this comfortable lead with 121 million days lost. In 1972 we took off into new league, all by ourselves, and scored 24 million days lost, Most European countries have experiment ed with profit sharing and other schemes t° give employees a share of the wealth theY, create. We, too, can boast our isolate(' examples, such as John Lewis, or the vanced social ownership of a concern In‘.` Scott Bader, where the employees own their, company. So far, these have tended to be et! the whim of rich individuals, thoug"

nonetheless praiseworthy for that. re But you see, it really is important if we a,

going to improve our industrial relations, one day change the whole race ot society, mac we should end the distinction, and tbe clash e' interests as it is too often regarded, between capital and labour. The Government has already heetel approached by the EEC Commission an„ asked what its ideas are for worker Pa': ticipation, because the Commission, in its 01" finite wisdom, is setting to work and moving towards a new deal in industry, with EuroPe as its basis, backed up by European laws. The poor old British Government is in a bit The

a proverbial spot — the Green Paperbl;

likely to be profoundly uninteresting. But' rici that as it may, the ball has begun to roll, 80 what the Green Paper will do will be to ope. up the way. And we are going to hal democracy, and more democracy, and I ail democracy,

able to report to Mr Asquith that an ' going as he would, have wished.

Francis Wintle, formerly in the Conservt Party Research Department, now works the Liberal Party organisation.