Derek McDowell (Labour)

We must acknowledge the reality that legislation will be largely troublesome in multinational corporations where there are no unions and where there will frequently be no agreed basis for appointment. In such circumstances, we must ensure employers do not pick some soft employee of their choosing in circumstances where there is really no representative way in which to deal with employees. It is all very well to say the appointment can be made by the employer on an agreed basis but the agreed basis will largely exist in companies with trade unions. Frankly, these are not the companies about which I am concerned. I am much more concerned about the sometimes quite large companies in which there is no representative basis for dealing with employees. In such companies it is essential that there be, at the very least, a guarantee that there be an election to ensure employees are represented by the person by whom they want to be represented.