The phoney, but convincing, Halifax Building Society “cashcard” dispenser “enticed” scores of people into trying to use it. “There are people who are the victims of crime as well as the perpetrators.”. Two men were found guilty yesterday of taking part in an ingenious fraud involving the world’s first home-made high street cash machine. “How can we say that people like Myra Hindley and Ian Brady should have the right to vote? What is Ian Brady going to vote when it comes to the rights of children? It’s a mockery,” he said.Jo Thompson, of the National Association of Probation Officers, told delegates that prisons were not full of people who had committed murder, rape or child abuse, only about 3,000 of the 50,000-strong prison population had been responsible for such crimes, she said. Jack Straw, shadow Home Secretary, said Labour disagreed with the plan and there was no question of its policy changing.

“Prison involves the loss of liberty and that includes loss of the vote.”.
Geoff Saunders, of the Amalgamated Electrical and Engineering Union, who spoke against the motion, later said that prisoners would inevitably opt for candidates who were soft on crime. Despite bitter opposition from some delegates, Congress decided by almost two votes to one that jailed criminals should be enfranchised. Labour clashed with the TUC yesterday over its decision to call for votes for prisoners, writes Barrie Clement. A similar motion has been submitted to next month’s Labour Party conference.. John Monks, TUC leader, said there would be no more campaigns with the group until the problems had been resolved. If the company decided to define the bargaining unit as the whole workforce then they would have the right to withdraw recognition, even though more than 80 per cent of journalists were in the union.Mr Foster, together with the actor, Tony Robinson, speaking on behalf of Equity, argued that unions should have collective rights however small the membership in a workplace.t Congress backed a resolution calling for the TUC to “re-establish trade union rights” at Mirror Group Newspapers, which owns 43 per cent of the Independent. He gave the example of Reuter, the wire service company, which recognises unions even though they only represent around a third of the employees.

Ian Lang, President of the Board of Trade, said it gave unions “sweeping new rights” and would return Britain to the industrial turmoil of the 1970s.Introducing a TUC report on the issue, Bill Morris, leader of the Transport & General Workers’ Union and a member of the TUC’s ruling general council, said the document was the most important to be delivered to congress for decades.”This report is about reclaiming the territory which is the right of trades unions to speak for and represent their members in and out of the work place. On day one of this report becoming law we say goodbye to derecognition.”Mr Morris said the era of a voluntary system of industrial relations had been buried by employers. The report Your Voice at Work – which was the theme of this year’s congress – combined the best traditions of British collective bargaining with new rights under European law. The proposals would win widespread support, he said.The TUC document, however, came under fire from some unions who argued that the proposals could encourage employers to withdraw recognition from unions where they could not command a majority in a “bargaining unit”.John Foster, general secretary of the National Union of Journalists, said companies may define bargaining units in such a way that it would be impossible for unions to claim majority support.

The process would be overseen by an official representation agency.While this is current Labour policy, party aides have embarked on a review of the proposal, partly in consultation with employers The plan came under immediate fire from ministers. BARRIE CLEMENT

Labour Editor
The TUC yesterday put pressure on the Labour Party to back a law which could force reluctant employers to recognise unions for collective bargaining.In what was seen as the most important resolution to be passed at the TUC Congress in Brighton this week, delegates overwhelmingly endorsed a radical plan to give unions legal backing in the workplace.Under the proposals everyone would have the right to be represented by a union official and where union members constituted 10 per cent of a workforce they would have the right to a “collective voice” and consultation.Potentially the most controversial proposition, however, was that employers would be forced to establish collective bargaining over pay and conditions where the majority of workers wanted it. Rufus Barnes of the London Passenger Transport Committee said: “So far we have managed to identify only one service where there would actually be more trains than currently. While we accept what Mr Salmon has to say, all this is creating a lot of uncertainty among passengers.”All these lines, apart from Scotrail, are due to be put out to tender this month, but the franchising process is running well behind the Government’s target of having 51 per cent of services in private hands by next April..

It would require pounds 580,000 against pounds 2.3m, but he felt it was still “an exceptionally high level of subsidy”, only justified by the train’s importance to the West Highlands.Despite Mr Salmon’s U-turns, rail user groups still expressed concern at the reduced levels of service proposed on many lines. However, it will be a truncated service (at present it runs six nights a week, with four sleeping cars, a buffet car and a guard’s van).Mr Salmon said his was a “more economical way of operating sleeper services to Fort William”. Most of them are commercially viable and therefore it will be advantageous for a private operator to run them as they will make money out of them.”However, on heavily subsidised lines, such as London commuter routes, nearly all existing trains will have to be run by private operators, although some early and late trains will be withdrawn: “These trains are very lightly used and in many cases are just used by operators to move rolling stock,” an Opraf spokesman said.Mr Salmon’s most notable retreat was on the Fort William sleeper which has been reinstated after his announcement last year that it would be cut. An Oprafsource said: “We want to give private operators flexibility and that is why we have not specified all existing trains.