Business Secretary Grant Shapps will introduce anti-strike legislation to the House of Commons on Tuesday as the UK government bids to minimize disruption from industrial action.
(Bloomberg) — Business Secretary Grant Shapps will introduce anti-strike legislation to the House of Commons on Tuesday as the UK government bids to minimize disruption from industrial action.
Under the proposed law, minimum service levels would be required on strike days for fire, ambulance and rail services, with the government consulting on the adequate level of coverage. In a string of broadcast interviews on Tuesday, Shapps said Britain was following the example set by other European nations, including France and Germany.
“We will never withdraw the right to strike from people but when there are strikes on, life and limb must come first and there has to be a minimum safety standard put in place for that,” Shapps told GB News.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s government is trying to curtail the ability of workers to strike after being hit by a wave of industrial action across the railways, National Health Service and Royal Mail. Ambulance workers are set to strike again on Wednesday after taking action last month, and nurses are also gearing up for a fresh walkout later this month after staging their biggest ever strike in December.
With teachers and doctors also threatening to join the wave of strikes, ministers on Monday held talks with unions across a range of sectors. They failed to stem planned strikes, although the government stance in opposition to the pay demands of health care workers appeared to have softened, with Health Secretary Steve Barclay telling union officials he was open to backdating their next pay rise.
The legislation put forward by Shapps will also cover health care, education, nuclear decommissioning, border security and other modes of transport, but those sectors will be subject to voluntary agreements on minimum service levels, the government said last week.
The legislation would allow employers to fire striking workers in essential sectors and sue trade unions if they fail to provide a minimum level of service, a person familiar with the matter told Bloomberg last week.
Labour’s Promise
The proposed law is likely to face stiff opposition from the unions and the Labour Party — whose leader Keir Starmer has vowed to repeal it if it’s passed. While Shapps told GB News he expects it to take less than six months to secure passage of the legislation, it won’t affect any near-term strikes. The Trade Unions Congress on Tuesday called on lawmakers to reject what it dubbed the “sack key workers bill.”
“Let’s be clear: if passed, this bill will prolong disputes and poison industrial relations – leading to more frequent strikes,” TUC General Secretary Paul Nowak said in a statement. “This legislation would mean that when workers democratically vote to strike, they can be forced to work and sacked if they don’t comply. That’s undemocratic, unworkable, and almost certainly illegal.”
Shapps told Times Radio that “every other European country has some form of minimum safety in place,” and that the government wants “to make sure we’re doing the same thing to protect the British people.”
His department last week said that the Netherlands, Germany, Spain and France “all balance the right to strike with ensuring continuity of public services,” and that UK provisions won’t go as far as some countries, “who ban outright strikes in ambulance and fire service.”
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
©2023 Bloomberg L.P.