PARLIAMENTARY EARLY DAY MOTION
ASTRA TRAINING SERVICES LTD. (16 November 1992)

That this House expresses profound disquiet at recent developments at Astra Training Services, formerly the Government's skillcentres; notes that staff at the centres owned by the company were previously pressurised into accepting worse severance terms than Civil Service terms and have now been obliged to accept an average 15 per cent. wage cut; feels that such procedures may contravene the TUPE Regulations and the EC Acquired Rights Directive and asks the Government to investigate this; refers to the claim by Astra Training Services that government training cuts and the recession are responsible for the company's present financial situation; and calls on the Government to examine this situation urgently with a view both to safeguarding and restoring employees' rights and to ensuring that neither Astra nor its financial backers are allowed to strip valuable assets which previously belonged to the Government and to the British people and which were given to Astra, along with a dowry in the so-called sale of skillcentres to this company.

Sponsored by:
Baroness Quin (Labour)