Former TUC general secretary Sir Brendan Barber will be guest speaker at next week’s CBI South West annual dinner.
The black-tie dinner is traditionally one of the key events in the region’s business calendar, attracting many of its leading businessmen and women as well as political figures.
This year’s dinner, which takes place next Wednesday at the Bristol Marriott City Centre hotel, will also hear from CBI chief membership director Sara Parker. 
Sir Brendan Barber, pictured, is chair of the conciliation and arbitration service ACAS. He was general secretary of the TUC between 2003 until his retirement at the end of 2012 and was knighted in the 2013 Birthday Honours for services to employment relations.
ACAS has been a critic of some aspects of zero-hours contracts. A study published by the organisation in May revealed that many workers on zero hours contracts “felt excluded from the sense of security, fairness and trust that's associated with permanent contracts of employment”.
A change in the law earlier this year meant that anyone thinking of making an Employment Tribunal claim had to contact ACAS first, which then tries to resolve the dispute quickly without the need for legal action. Since then it has received around 1,600 inquiries a week.
Previous speakers over the years at the high-profile dinner, sponsored again this year by Barclays, Bristol law firm Burges Salmon and Plymouth University, have included senior politicians, civil servants, diplomats, economists and industrialists. Last year's speaker was the Labour Party's former Downing Street spokesman-turned political commentator Alastair Campbell.
Bristol Business News will have full coverage of Sir Brendan’s speech next Thursday.
