The Tory anti-strike bill drives a coach and horses through fundamental rights

It is clear that, after a decade of public sector pay falling behind the cost of living and with a workforce struggling to cope with the impact that austerity has had on the services that they are trying to deliver, millions of workers feel the below inflation pay settlements that they have been offered now do not represent a fair deal or an adequate recognition of their contribution over the last few difficult years. This has led to an upsurge in industrial action including, amongst many others, the Royal College of Nursing taking that step for the first time in their history.

But rather than listen to the concerns of these workers, who are employed across a whole range of sectors, the government has chosen legislation over negotiation. And this isn’t just another awful piece of Tory law. It is a bill that drives a coach and horses through fundamental rights, threatening the essence of collective action in this country.

The innocuously named minimum service levels bill returns to the House of Commons this week, and Labour MPs will fight it every step of the way. Even the way the bill is passing through parliament would put many authoritarian regimes to shame. Ordinarily, bills will have some pre-legislative consultation, but that has not happened this time. No impact assessment has yet been published (little wonder given that the impact assessment for the original version of this bill – which covered just the transport sector – concluded that it would probably lengthen disputes) and the committee stage of the bill is being rushed through parliament in one day. Normally, this stage would last for a number of weeks and would include evidence sessions from interested parties, but none of this will happen with this legislation. The Tories are intent on pushing the bill through and are not interested in listening to any dissenting voices.

The bill will give ministers the power to set a minimum service level that must be delivered during strikes across six different sectors, including transport, health, fire and rescue, education, nuclear and border security. That level could theoretically be set so high that the vast majority of employees would be legally required to attend work on a strike day as a result of a ‘work notice’ issued by their employer. Trade unions are required under the bill to take “reasonable steps” to ensure those union members who are issued with these notices attend work, and failure to do so can see the union being sued for up to £1m.

This will put unions and their members in an invidious position. Unions will be legally required to ask their members to attend work on a strike day, crossing picket lines in the process. For those who are asked to do so, it is an unenviable and abhorrent dilemma, forced to walk past their colleagues in contradiction of what may well be deeply held and life-long beliefs or risk being sacked and their trade union sued. And whilst the government might claim that similar laws exist across Europe, they don’t include powers to sack workers who refuse to cross a picket line and the legal and industrial context in most other countries is very different, with trade unions often having wider opportunities for collective bargaining.

This bill will poison the industrial relations landscape and do nothing to quell the dissatisfaction striking workers feel. Everybody in this country who is concerned about individual liberty and freedom should be opposed to this attack on the fundamental right to withdraw your labour.

Labour will repeal this law when we enter government and, through our new deal for working people, unleash a new era of security and prosperity in the workplace. From the strengthening of individual rights to the introduction of sectoral collective bargaining, we will create a new industrial relations architecture that will see workers and their trade union representatives treated as equals, with their contribution genuinely valued. The complete opposite of the hostile and ultimately self-defeating approach this government takes.