Business secretary Grant Shapps has said that the government’s new plans to mitigate the impact of industrial action will provide a “minimum safety level” and “restore the balance between those seeking to strike and protecting the public from disproportionate disruption”.
Under the draft legislation, there will be “adequate” minimum service requirements imposed upon fire, ambulance and rail services on strike days, following a consultation process. Should trade unions not adhere to these, they could face legal action.
The Times also reports that workers who do not comply with minimum service level requirements could be dismissed by their employers under the plans.
The laws would cover England, Scotland and Wales only.
Shapps added: “Other modern European economies all have minimum safety levels and we have announced that we will be introducing those in legislation.”
Elsewhere, ministers are expecting to strike voluntary deals to account for other areas of the public sector such as health, education, the wider transport industry and Border Force.
The plans face vehement opposition from trade unions, who believe it constitutes a threat to the right to strike.
Paul Nowak, the general secretary of the Trades Union Congress [TUC], branded the plans “wrong, unworkable, and almost certainly illegal”.
He said: “This is an attack on the right to strike. It's an attack on working people, and it's an attack on one of our longstanding British liberties.
“This government has gone from clapping key workers to threatening them with the sack if they take lawful action for a pay rise. It will only push more people away from essential jobs in public services.”
Mick Whelan, the general secretary of the Aslef union, argued that minimum service levels that Shapps referred to which exist in other European countries have “never been enacted because they don’t work”, and that there were already provisions in UK law to dismiss workers who strike illegally.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has already said that his party would repeal the laws if successful at the next general election.
The Conservatives’ 2019 election manifesto outlined that the party would look to introduce minimum service levels in the transport industry but made no reference to other sectors.
The draft legislation is expected to be published next week before being debated in the Commons for its first reading in the week commencing January 16. As such, it will not affect the current wave of industrial action taking place across various public sector industries.
The Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy [BEIS] has said that it will reach out to unions for “honest, constructive conversations” about “fair and affordable” pay settlements in the 2023-24 tax year and urged the unions to engage and help stop the strikes.
Image by Chris McAndrew on Wikimedia Commons
